storage emulated 0 pictures comica cartoon16833164978082780623712212003131 The World Health Organisation on Friday said it was downgrading COVID-19 and no longer characterising it as a global health emergency.
The U.N. health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an international crisis on Jan. 30, 2020.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the change during a media briefing held with reporters at the agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
But he clarified that this does not mean the pandemic is over.
"It is with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency," he said. "However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat. Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every three minutes -- and that's just the deaths we know about."
The downgrade comes with the pandemic on a "downward trend" for more than a year due to growing immunity among the global population -- both from vaccination and infection -- as well as a decreasing number of deaths, according to Tedros. This has also led to health systems no longer feeling as much of a burden as they once did.
"This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before," he said.
Tedros recounted the early days of the pandemic, noting that when it first declared COVID-19 to be a public health emergency, China reported fewer than 100 cases and no deaths.
He said that 7 million COVID-19 deaths have been reported to WHO, but officials believe the true toll to be at least 20 million. In the U.S., more than 1.1 million deaths have been recorded, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"But COVID-19 has been so much more than a health crisis," Tedros said. "It has caused severe economic upheaval, erasing trillions from GDP, disrupting travel and trade, shuttering businesses and plunging millions into poverty."
He continued, "It has caused severe social upheaval, with borders closed, movement restricted, schools shut and millions of people experiencing loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression."
And despite the downgrade, there are still thousands of people dying every day as well as being hospitalized due to complications from the virus.
Tedros warned against countries letting their guard down and said they must remain vigilant in case a new highly infectious variant emerges.
"I emphasize that this is not a snap decision. It is a decision that has been considered carefully for some time, planned for, and made based on a careful analysis of the data," he said. "If need be, I will not hesitate to convene another Emergency Committee should COVID-19 once again put our world in peril."
Article Credit: ABC News

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img 20220302 wa00087808514141454900105 The Chairman, Senate Committee on Industries and the Senator representing the Lagos East Senatorial District, Distinguished Senator Mukhail Adetokunbo Abiru, FCA has continued his COVID-19 Financial Support Scheme in the year 2022.
The scheme was earlier planned to terminate in December 2021, but the Senator has graciously continued in the new year as the economic headwinds occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to fully abate. Senator Abiru said his concern for the plight of the poor during the current fuel scarcity and the record food inflation necessitated the continuation of financial support to ease the hardship of the vulnerable at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid.
Today, the batch B beneficiaries in the 2500 pool of vulnerable constituents drawn across 98 wards in the 16 Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas received direct credits in their bank accounts.
For fourteen (14) consecutive months, People with physical disabilities, widows, aged, unemployed youth and women have been receiving support from Senator Abiru every month. The scheme has been on since January 2021. The #DoingGood Senator who has been delivering on his mantra of, ‘ Greater good to the larger number of people, has been greatly commended for his novel interventions and programmes.
For the records, the Senator recently established an Innovation Hub in the Lagos East district, known as the Senator Abiru Innovation Lab (SAIL) in partnership with renowned technology and Social Enterprise company, The Co-creation Hub (Cc-HUB) to train youths in the senatorial district on relevant digital and innovation skills and build the best entrepreneurs that can compete in the ever-dynamic global economy.
Over Four Thousand (4,000) young people across the Lagos East Senatorial District applied for the SAIL programmes. Currently, over One Hundred Fifty (150) students are participating in the Five (5) Pilot Programmes at the SAIL Centre in Ikorodu while over One Thousand (1000) eligible applicants will be trained online. These programmes which shall run for between 3 - 6 months are as follows:
1. Tech Talent Development - is aimed at identifying young people who are interested in a career in technology. Selected candidates will be taken through a learning plan that will transform them from complete novice to entry-level software engineers in 6 months. At the end of the training programme, they will be fully qualified for an entry-level job or internship.
2. Startup Accelerator for Businesses - is for young people who have business ideas that can be amplified by technology. The aim is to accelerate their growth with hands-on business support. For those who have a prototype, we will help them with product-market fit as well as build their capacity to be able to attract funding and support for their business. For those who don’t yet have a prototype, we will support them to develop their ideas for the testing phase. 3.Lagos East Teachers' Fellowship - a programme aimed at equipping Educators with new skills that would lead to better learning outcomes. It is for Teachers who are interested in inquiry-based learning and want to use technology in their classrooms to the benefit of their students. 4 Business 101 for Artisans and Creatives - this programme is designed for creative startups in the fashion, crafts, or design sector to upscale the approach to business in a fast-evolving world. This training will help creatives better understand how to use technology to improve their businesses. 5 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education for Senior Secondary School Students - a programme designed to introduce students between the ages of 13-18 years to the concept of physical computing. Massive global opportunities and guaranteed job placements await successful participants who deeply applied themselves to the training and acquired high-demand tech and digital skills. In April this year, an N300 Million Constituency Intervention Revolving Loan at a low concessional interest rate of six (6) per cent per annum will be unveiled for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the district. “We shall continuously lookout and champion policies and legislative agenda that will be of benefit to the greatest number of our people”, the Senator assured.

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