The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be over as a global health emergency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that he made the decision after a recommendation from the WHO’s emergency committee, which was discussed on Thursday for the 15th time.
The WHO director-general however stated that the virus is still a global threat as it is here to stay on the global stage.
In his words, “However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat. This virus is here to stay. It is killing, and it is still changing. The risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths.”
Recall that first known outbreak of COVID-19 came forth in November 2019 in Wuhan, China. When the WHO announced COVID as a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, there were fewer than 100 reported cases and no reported deaths outside China.
Three years since then, the figures of global COVID deaths reported to WHO have risen to almost 7 million, though the real death numbers according to Tedros, are many times higher, getting to at least 20 million.
“COVID-19 has turned our world upside down,” he said, severely disrupting health systems, causing severe economic and social upheaval, and plunging millions into poverty.”
“But for more than a year now, he said, “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,” He added.
He emphasized that these were among the many grounds he decided to take the counsel of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to lower the level of alert and announce an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern.
Also, Didier Houssin, chair of the IHR committee, stated that only two to three people on the 18-member committee exhibited any hesitation about announcing an end to the pandemic as a global threat.
He stated that many doubts remained, “particularly concerning the growth of the virus,” and he revealed that it continued to spread in every nation as the pandemic continued.
