The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new initiative to help strengthen countries’ ability to prepare and deal with another deadly pandemic like the Covid-19.
The new Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Initiative (Pret) includes approaches established during the Covid-19 pandemic and other recent public health emergencies.
“Just as health emergencies have impacts across many sectors, so must our preparedness and response efforts span sectors, disciplines and pathogens," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
It makes planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics a priority and encourages sharing of information on good practices.
"This virus is here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases,'' Dr Tedros told a media briefing in Geneva.
Latest figures show a huge fall in Covid deaths this year with 14,000 deaths confirmed over the past four weeks.
