The World Health Organization announcement marks a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide.
The World Health Organization’s announcement marks a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that sparked previously unthinkable lockdowns, shattered economies and killed millions of people around the world.
The announcement came over three years after the WHO declared the coronavirus an international crisis, offers some relief, if not an ending, to a pandemic that stirred fear and suspicion, hand-wringing and finger-pointing across the globe.
Covid-19 emergency is over: WHO
The UN health agency’s officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn’t ended, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
WHO says thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week, and millions of others are suffering from debilitating, long-term effects.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “It’s with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency. That does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat.
The WHO director said he wouldn’t hesitate to reconvene experts to assess the situation should a new variant “put our world in peril.”
He noted that while the official Covid-19 death toll was 7 million, the real figure was estimated to be at least 20 million
Tedros said the pandemic had been on a downward trend for more than a year, acknowledging that most countries have already returned to life before Covid-19. He complained about the damage to the world community caused by the coronavirus, saying the pandemic had shattered businesses, exacerbated political divisions, led to the spread of misinformation and plunged millions into poverty
