The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the spread of Covid-19 is no longer a global public health emergency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday for more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend.
“Population immunity has been increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing.”
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“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19.”
“It’s therefore with great hope that I declared Covid-19 over as a global health emergency,” he said.
Nearly 7 million people have died from the virus worldwide since WHO first declared the emergency on January 30, 2020.
Tedros said the the true death toll is at least 20 million.
The WHO’s decision comes as the U.S. is set to end its national public health emergency on May 11.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
According to WHO, while the global risk assessment remains high, there is evidence of reducing risks to human health driven mainly by high population-level immunity from infection, vaccination, or both; consistent virulence of currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sub-lineages compared to previously circulating Omicron sub-lineages; and improved clinical case management.
These factors have contributed to a significant global decline in the weekly number of COVID-19-related deaths, hospitalizations, and admissions to intensive care units since the beginning of the pandemic.
While SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, the currently circulating variants do not appear to be associated with increased severity.