2023年5月5日 23:45　　来源：新华网
http://www.news.cn/2023-05/05/c_1129592852.htm
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gj/2023/05-05/10002402.shtml

　　新华社日内瓦5月5日电（记者王其冰 陈斌杰 郭爽）世界卫生组织5日宣布，新冠疫情（COVID-19）不再构成“国际关注的突发公共卫生事件”（PHEIC），解除2020年1月30日拉响的最高级别警报。

　　世卫组织紧急委员会4日举行会议评估全球疫情，世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞根据会议结果宣布上述决定。

　　“我满怀希望地宣布，新冠疫情全球卫生紧急状态结束。”谭德塞5日在记者会上说，近期全球疫情总体呈下降趋势，人群免疫力提升，死亡率逐步下降，全球卫生系统承压减轻，多数国家恢复到过去熟悉的生活。

　　谭德塞表示，各国是时候将防控新冠疫情从应急模式过渡到与管理其他传染病一样的阶段了。他同时强调，这不意味着新冠疫情不再是全球健康威胁，出现新变种的风险仍然存在。

　　过去三年多，全球经历由阿尔法、德尔塔、奥密克戎等变异毒株引发的多轮疫情高峰。世卫组织数据显示，全球累计报告确诊病例逾7.6亿，报告死亡病例超过690万，而实际死亡病例可能达2000万。新冠疫情不仅仅是一场健康危机，它造成了严重的经济危机与社会动荡。

　　谭德塞表示，这既是值得庆祝的时刻，也是值得反思的时刻。他向医护人员、疫苗研发人员、各国政府以及为保护自己和彼此安全作出努力的每一个人表示感谢。

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/health/covid-who-emergency-end.html

W.H.O. Ends Global Public Health Emergency Designation for Covid-19
May 5, 2023, By Stephanie Nolen, New York Times

The World Health Organization announced on Friday (May 5) that it was ending the emergency it declared more than three years ago (on Jan. 30, 2020) for Covid-19, the pandemic that has killed millions of people around the world and upended daily life in previously unimaginable ways.

"Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the Public Health Emergency of International Concern. I have accepted that advice," W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva.

"For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing."

"This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19," Tedros said. "It is therefore with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency."

Many countries have already ended their own states of emergency for Covid, and have moved away from almost all public health restrictions implemented to control the virus. But the lifting of the W.H.O. designation - officially called a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" - is a significant moment in the evolving human relationship with the novel coronavirus.

Globally, there have been 765,222,932 confirmed cases of Covid, including 6,921,614 deaths, reported to the W.H.O. as of May 3. But these figures are a vast undercount of the pandemic's true toll. "We know the true toll is several times higher, at least 20 million," Dr. Tedros said.

"Covid-19 has been so much more than a health crisis: it has caused severe social upheaval," said Dr. Tedros, describing crippled economies, closed borders, shuttered schools and millions of people suffering in isolation.

The virus that jumped into humans in late 2019 proved to be an unpredictable adversary, mutating swiftly and significantly in ways that allowed it to resurge and devastate countries just as they thought the worst was past.

On May 3, the W.H.O. issued an updated Covid management plan, which it said was intended to guide countries on how to manage Covid over the next two years as they transition from emergency response to long-term Covid prevention and control.
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