Online Desk: World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will end in 2023, according to a statement on the WHO website. “The weekly number of reported deaths is now lower than when we first used the word ‘pandemic’ three years ago. The improvement is significant. I am confident that at some point this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern – and as a pandemic,” Ghebreyesus said, reports Bernama news agency.

He said everyone must learn the pandemic’s lessons. “If we do not, we will repeat the cycle of panic and neglect that has been the hallmark of the global response to epidemics and pandemics for decades,” Ghebreyesus said.

It is noteworthy that in December 2019, the Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization of the outbreak of an unknown pneumonia disease in Wuhan, central China, to spread later as a global epidemic that claimed the lives of more than 7 million people all over the world.