The World Health Organization said Wednesday that COVID-19 cases and deaths are on the decline worldwide, yet still stressed that the pandemic “will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."

The Associated Press reports that the biggest drop in infections was reported in Africa and the Middle East, as cases fell in both regions by around 40%. Deaths have been on the decline worldwide, and emerging cases dropped by 5% in the past week, which signifies an ongoing decrease in infections that were first detected over a month ago.

"Although reported cases and deaths are declining globally, and several countries have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is far from over,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Two years later, more than six million people have died."

"We throw money at an outbreak, and when it's over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one. This is dangerously short-sighted," said the World Health Organization's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
"We throw money at an outbreak, and when it's over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one. This is dangerously short-sighted," said the World Health Organization's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus World Health Organization / Christopher Black

As nations worldwide begin to lift COVID protocols, health experts have explained that this doesn’t necessarily signify the end of the pandemic. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in February that additional variants are approaching and that the pandemic is not over yet. “We have seen the virus evolve, mutate ... so we know there will be more variants, more variants of concern,” Swaminathan said. “We are not at the end of the pandemic."

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates believes that another pandemic is imminent while stating that the threat of getting severe symptoms from COVID-19 has been “dramatically reduced.”

“We’ll have another pandemic,” he said. “It will be a different pathogen next time.”

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