WHO recently declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a health emergency        

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gestures during a press briefing on the coronavirus on January 29, 2020 in Geneva.— AFP/File

GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization warned that the world must prepare for the next pandemic, which could be “even deadlier” than the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign media reported.

In a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sounded an alarm that the COVID-19 pandemic was far from over. “The threat of another variant emerging that causes new surges of disease and death remains,” Dr. Tedros said. “And the threat of another pathogen emerging with even deadlier potential remains.”

However, the WHO recently declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a health emergency. “When the next pandemic comes knocking — and it will — we must be ready to answer decisively, collectively and equitably,” he added.