COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 17th March 2023
World COVID Statistics: 682,255,152 reported cases and 6,817,431 losses of life.
"Over 3 years into the COVID19 emergency, too many lives have been lost. Too many people are still suffering, including from Long COVID. We'll never stop demanding equitable access to life-saving tools.
"Understanding COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains:
-a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks
-a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with Long COVID"
Dr Tedros, Head of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
On 11th March it was 3 years since WHO declared COVID a pandemic. It wasn't actually their job, but by 11th March 2020 it had become clear no-one else was going to do it and everyone was waiting, so Dr Tedros made the announcement. In some people's minds this made him responsible for the entire thing.
"Around this time three years ago, the world woke up to the seriousness of COVID19, to stay at home orders, to life - as we had known it - changed…
We have all been impacted by the COVID19 pandemic, we are all different, and we cannot go “back” to the way it was, we need to make our futures better…
I know the world wants so desperately for the COVID19 pandemic to be over. I do too. But we aren’t done yet and this virus isn’t done with us yet. It is here to stay and we can do more to protect everyone, everywhere…"
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical Lead, Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Lead, WHO Health Emergencies Programme.