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NEW YORK — After more than three years, the World Health Organization announced on Friday that the world health emergency over COVID-19 has ended. The WHO declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the emergency committee met for the 15th time and recommended it was time to end the public health emergency as the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 have been in decline for most of the past year.
“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.
However, Tedros said countries should not get complacent about the virus, which continues to spread and evolve.
“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 added.
According to the WHO, there have been over 765 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world, and nearly seven million people have died.
The public health emergency will expire on May 11 in the United States.
