Vatican, 24 July, 2023 / 7:42 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis met with Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, this morning in a private Vatican audience, the Holy See’s press office announced.
No additional details were provided regarding the meeting, and requests for comment to both the Holy See and WHO were not returned before publication.
The pope previously met Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian public health official and Orthodox Christian who has served as WHO’s director-general since 2017, at a 2018 Vatican meeting.
Pope Francis meets with Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, July 24, 2023, in a private Vatican audience. Credit: Vatican Media
Containment of the COVID-19 outbreak had been a major focal point of WHO, the health agency of the United Nations, over the past three years. Under Ghebreyesus’ leadership, WHO secured 2 billion vaccine doses for distribution in 2021. The WHO director also said in May 2022 that the “zero-COVID” strategy, which involves significant government intervention to stop the spread of the virus, was no longer suitable and declared in May 2023 that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency.
