Exactly five years ago, on January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of Coronavirus as a public health emergency of international interest. This was the highest level of health warning that WHO could issue under international law, the international health regulation.
The outbreak spread like pandemia And until the end of the past, more than 776.8 million confirmed cases of. And more than 7 million deaths had been notified to WHO in 234 countries.
No Brazil, There were more than 39 million cases and a number of deaths that exceeded 714 thousand.
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At the time of the emergency announcement, there were 7,766 confirmed cases of coronaviruses in Chinawith 170 deaths, but outside the Asian giant had been officially registered less than 100 cases of Covid-19, and no death.
In the US, for example, that week, only the first transmission of the person to person was announced, raising the total number of cases confirmed to 6 in the country.
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That day, the Director General of WHO, Tedros adhanom He gave the following statement: “In recent weeks, we witnessed the emergence of a previously unknown pathogen and witnessed an unprecedented outbreak (…) we must all act together now to limit propagation.”
On December 31, 2019, the WHO office in China raised a media statement from the Municipal Health Commission of Wuhan on your website about ‘viral pneumonia’ cases in the city.
WHO officials activated emergency systems on January 1, 2020 and informed the world on January 4. From January 9 to 12, WHO published its first set of comprehensive guidelines for the countries and, on January 13, partners were gathered to publish the plan of the first laboratory test of Sars-Cov-2.
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In its X account, WHO recalls that a group of independent global health experts called Emergency Committee was initially summoned eight days before the announcement to discuss whether the outbreak was a global emergency.
“At its first meeting on January 22, 2020, based on what was then known, the 15-member committee was divided. Dr. Tedros would gather them again in the following days. ”
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Tedros Adhanom and other WHO leadership member Dr. Mike Ryan traveled to China to learn more and share updates with the world.
On January 30 of that year, at the second meeting of the Emergency Committee, the experts advised the Director General that the outbreak was a public health emergency of international interest. He accepted this recommendation and declared the global emergency at a press conference that night.
The pandemic spread fast. In April, WHO reported that more than 1 million COVID-19 cases had been confirmed worldwide, an increase of more than ten times in less than a month.
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The organization points out that, based on COVID-19 experiences and other disease outbreaks, WHO member countries have reviewed the International Health Regulation. “Countries are also discussing a new global pandemic cooperation agreement. After all, if the story has taught us something, it is that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. ”
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