End of COVID-19 Pandemic ‘in Sight’ – WHO Boss

By Xinhua 

September 14, 2022

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks at a press conference after the WHO emergency committee's meeting on the novel coronavirus in China at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Qu)

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic is “in sight” with the world now being in the best possible position to defeat it, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, urging countries to keep up the fight.

“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

WHO chief noted that the last week’s death toll from COVID-19 was the lowest since March 2020.

Ghebreyesus urged all countries to invest in vaccinating 100% of the most at-risk groups, including health workers and the elderly, as the highest priority on the path toward 70% vaccination coverage.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. As of September 11, more than 605 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 6.4 million deaths, according to the WHO.