WHO Reconvenes Emergency Committee After COVID-19 Upsurge

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Monday announced he would reconvene the WHO's emergency committee this week to re-evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic after global cases doubled over the past six weeks.

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Adhanom expressed his concern about the fact that over 16 million COVID-19 cases and 650,000 deaths have been reported since January.

"When I declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30... there were less than 100 cases outside of China and no deaths," he stated.

Early this month, WHO created an independent commission to review its performance in the current pandemic.

At that time, Adhanom said that the Commission would seek to understand the situation with the virus and help to prevent the current tragedy from happening again.

“COVID-19 has changed our world. It has brought people, communities, and nations together, and driven them apart," Adhanom said, stressing about the necessity of global solidarity.

When the emergency committee was established, the WHO director vowed that it would make a "fair, independent, and comprehensive" review of how WHO is handling the pandemic.

“It will not be another blue-ribbon panel that issues a report that goes up on the bookshelf"

As announced previously, the committee’s final report will be officially presented at the WHO annual meeting in May 2021.