The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to end this year as a “public health emergency,” the World Health Organization says.

The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday he was “confident”. COVID-19 pandemic will end in 2023.

General Manager Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made comments to reporters at a media briefing in Geneva.

“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have ever been during a pandemic,” the doctor said. Gebreisus said.

He noted that over the past four weeks, the weekly number of reported deaths has been lower than before the pandemic was declared in March 2020.

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“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 has ended as a public health emergency of international concern,” he added.

COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to decline worldwide.

As of March 6, the weekly death rate worldwide was 5,048.

This is more than 26% less than the previous week and down from a peak of 102,000 deaths in January 2021, according to the WHO.

Weekly COVID-19 cases worldwide fell to 812,255, down 21.65% from the previous week. They peaked at 44.3 million in December 2022.

“More than 5,000 deaths were reported last week.”

In the US, as of March 15, the weekly number of cases has dropped to 149,955 after a peak of 5.6 million in January. February 19, 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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The country’s weekly death toll was 1,706, up from a record 23,478 recorded in January. February 13, 2021 and another surge of 17,357 people on February 1. 2, 2022.

“We’re not there yet”

However, despite its optimistic forecast, the WHO is not quite ready to declare the end of the pandemic at this point in time.

“We haven’t reached that yet. Over 5,000 deaths were still recorded last week,” the doctor said. This was stated by Gebreyesus at a briefing.

“That’s 5,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and cured.”

Dr. Ghebreyesus also stressed the need to determine how the pandemic began.

“Last Sunday, WHO was informed about the data published in the GISAID database at the end of January and recently deleted again,” he said.

“Date from Chinese Center for Disease Control and Preventionrefers to samples taken from the Huanan Market in Wuhan in 2020.”

Dr. Ghebreyesus said that while these specific data do not provide a “definitive answer” to the origin of the pandemic, all information is important to achieve this goal.

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“This data could – and should have – been transferred three years ago,” he continued. “We continue to urge China to be transparent in data sharing, and to carry out the necessary investigations and share results. Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and a scientific imperative.”

“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have ever been during a pandemic.”

Dr. Mark Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York and a Fox News medical columnist said this weekend that he questions the WHO’s hesitation in signaling an end to the international emergency, despite the fact that the weekly COVID death toll is lower than it was before the pandemic.

“Under the strong influence of China, the actions of the WHO leadership were erratic at best, delaying the declaration of a pandemic by almost two months after it had spread widely, and failed to get China to speak openly and transparently about the origin,” the doctor said. Siegel told Fox News Digital in an interview.

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“The pandemic has shown that WHO at the highest level is grossly inadequate.”

In January 2023, President Joe Biden announced that end the COVID emergency May 11th.

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He previously stated that the pandemic “ended” in September 2022.