MANILA — The World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to end the global health emergency on COVID-19 by the end of 2022, but there is still much more work to be done, an official said.

In a recent social media forum, WHO's COVID-19 Technical Lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said some countries were already able to manage COVID-19 and minimize deaths, but the number is still unacceptable.

In its latest report, the WHO logged about 9,000 fatalities from Oct. 3 to 9, a little higher than the previous week’s 8,300 deaths.

“Our goal, that we laid out in the latest Global Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, was to end the emergency of COVID by the end of this year. We’re not quite there yet.” Van Kerkhove said.

“We are still seeing some decline, potentially a stabilization in deaths. But last week alone, 9,002 people lost their lives to COVID-19 that we know about and it’s probably a higher number than that. That’s really quite a high number,” she added.

In 2020, WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern over the outbreak of the then-called novel coronavirus, acknowledging the risk the virus posed to countries beyond its origin Wuhan, China and of the need for a more coordinated international response.

On Friday (Manila time), the WHO’s Emergency Committee on COVID-19 convened again to deliberate on the pandemic situation.

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Van Kerkhove noted that the virus will stay even if the emergency is over, and there may be a need for additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines as time goes on.

“The virus is here to stay with us. We have to live with it responsibly. We’re not quite there yet. And the pandemic itself will end, but it’s just not over yet,” she said.

Around 30 percent of the world’s population, particularly in low-income countries, are still not vaccinated, including senior citizens, persons with comorbidity, and medical workers who are more vulnerable of developing severe disease, according to Van Kerkhove.

“We want to reach 100 percent of people over 60 in every country, 100 percent of people with underlying conditions in every country, and 100 percent of our healthcare workers in every country. We have not reached those targets. If we look at it by regions, there is a huge discrepancy in vaccination coverage of the most at-risk, of our healthcare workers,” she said.

The Philippines has over 9.2 million senior citizens, but only 6.8 million are fully vaccinated; and among 14. 5 million people with comorbidities, only 9.4 million are fully vaccinated, latest data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed.

Philippine infectious diseases specialist Dr. Rontgene Solante said COVID-19 may be in an endemic state in the country if the positivity rate is less than 10 percent, the healthcare utilization rate is less than 50 percent, and at least 50 percent of the population have received their booster shots against the disease.

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But even with the pandemic label, the country is already behaving in an endemic state, according to Solante.

“If you look at what we’re doing now, mobility is increased, workplace capacity is already 100 percent, public transportation is already 100 percent. So, we’re on that way na. Pero hindi na magiging normal ‘yan na kagaya before because I would say, ‘yung face mask natin mukhang ‘di natin matatanggal ‘yan indoor, tutuloy pa rin ang magpapabakuna, at i-enhance pa rin natin ‘yung mga gamot para sa COVID,” Solante said.

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