COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency, WHO declares
The change should be considered an 'accolade', says Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus.
After 40 months and one week, the WHO has decided that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency — even if it remains a pandemic.
Director-general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus (PhD) said on Friday that countries should “transition to long-term management” of COVID-19 and that it was not an “extraordinary event” anymore.
“Reaching the point where COVID-19 can be considered as no longer constituting a PHEIC [public health emergency of international concern] should be seen as accolade to international co-ordination and commitment to global health,” he added.
The recommendation was based on declining rates of deaths and hospitalisations across the world, which had “allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19”.
