WHO declares end to Covid global health emergency

Health

Covid is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization said Friday. The WHO issued the declaration more than three years ago, on Jan. 30, 2020.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he made the decision following a recommendation from the WHO’s emergency committee, which met on Thursday for the 15th time.

"I have accepted that advice," Tedros said. "It is therefore with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency."

"For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend, with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing and the pressure on health systems easing. This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19," Tedros said Friday.

However, he noted that worldwide, someone died of Covid every three minutes last week — a figure that only includes reported deaths.

“The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry about," Tedros said.

Source: NBC News