Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 7) — The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday expressed belief that the emergency status of COVID-19 could be lifted sometime this year.
“I think we will be able to lift it this year,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a press conference, answering a question from the press.
The UN health agency head, however, did not expound and give a specific time frame. The expert committee on the pandemic’s status is next due to meet in May.
The WHO said it continues to consider COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern.
It declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in March of 2020 after recording 118,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths, detecting the virus in every continent except for Antarctica.
