Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Happy New Year and good morning, good afternoon and good evening to all Member States, and thank you all for joining us on our first information session of the year.
Now into the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is in a much better place than it was several years ago, due to clinical care management, vaccines and treatments.
For most of last year, COVID-19 was on the decline.
Vaccination increased across the world, and there was sustained progress in many lower- and middle-income countries.
New lifesaving antivirals were identified, which helped cut mortality.
On Christmas Day, WHO announced that the antivirals Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir were prequalified for production by an Indian manufacturer.
This is the first generic version of an antiviral to get WHO approval and should lead to increased production and access; particularly in lower- and middle-income countries.
But the threat of COVID-19 persists.
Major inequalities in access to testing, treatment and vaccination continue.
Every week, approximately ten thousand people die of COVID-19.
The true toll is likely much higher.
And the current COVID-19 epidemiological picture is troubling.
There is intense transmission and pressure on health systems particularly in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and a recombinant sub-variant spreading quickly.
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XBB.1.5 is the recombinant of two BA.2 sub-lineages.
It was originally identified in October 2022, has now been detected in 29 countries and appears to be growing quickly in some geographies.
WHO is following closely, assessing, and will report on the risk to Member States accordingly.
China is experiencing very high transmission at the moment and last week WHO held a series of high-level meetings with our counterparts to discuss the surge in cases and hospitalisations.
This week, WHO's Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution, which also met with Chinese experts, released a statement that noted, "the critical need for and importance of additional analysis as well as sharing of sequence data to understand the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and emergence of concerning mutations or variants."
WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses, to protect against hospitalization, severe disease, and death.
This is especially important for older people, those with underlying medical conditions, and others who are at higher risk of severe outcomes.
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There will now be a series of COVID-19 presentations by my WHO colleagues Dr Abdi Mahamud, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove and Dr Kate O'Brien.
In addition, we are pleased that four colleagues from China CDC are joining us to discuss the current COVID-19 situation in China.
As always, we are grateful for your engagement with today's presentations, and we look forward to your questions, comments and guidance.
I thank you.
