The World Health Organization (WHO) considers that there has been a downward trend in deaths caused by Covid-19 in recent weeks, but "critical uncertainties" remain about the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The director-general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at the opening of the meeting of the Global Public Health Emergency Committee, "in each of the last 10 weeks, the number of deaths reported each week has been the lowest since March 2020".

The WHO's top leader told the experts from various fields who make up this committee that it was "very gratifying to see that the downward trend" in the number of deaths has continued since the last meeting in January.

"This sustained trend has allowed life to return to normal in most countries and has increased the capacity of health systems to deal with potential resurgences and the burden of the post-covid-19 condition," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

However, the WHO official warned that "there are still some critical uncertainties about the evolution of the virus, which make it difficult to predict" the dynamics of its future transmission or its seasonal behavior.

On Wednesday, the WHO launched a new global plan for the management of covid-19 until 2025, which warns of the millions of cases of 'long covid' that will continue to require medical attention.