COVID no longer a global health emergency, says WHO.

WHO Declares End to COVID-19 Global Health Emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that COVID-19 no longer represents a global health emergency. This is a significant step towards the end of the pandemic that has disrupted the global economy, ravaged communities, and claimed the lives of over 6.9 million people.

Hope for the Future

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated, “It’s therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency.” The WHO’s emergency committee first declared COVID-19 as its highest level of alert more than three years ago, on January 30, 2020. The status helped focus international attention on the health threat and bolstered collaboration on vaccines and treatments.

Progress Made

Lifting the global health emergency status is a sign of the progress the world has made in these areas. However, COVID-19 is here to stay, the WHO has said, even if it no longer represents an emergency. The death rate has slowed from a peak of over 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 in the week to April 24, according to WHO data.

Continued Threat

Despite the progress made, Ghebreyesus emphasized that COVID-19 is not over as a global health threat. The WHO does not declare the beginning or end of pandemics, although it did start using the term for COVID-19 in March 2020.

Hope for the Future

Last year, U.S. President Joe Biden declared the pandemic over. Like a number of other countries, the world’s biggest economy has begun dismantling its domestic state of emergency for COVID-19, meaning it will stop paying for things like vaccines.

Reporting

Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Gabrielle Tétrault-Farbe in Geneva, Bhanvi Satija and Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru; Editing by Josephine Mason and Shinjini Ganguli