The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 is no longer a “global health emergency.”
The WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic in March 2020.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that this means it is time for countries to transition from “emergency mode” to managing Covid-19 alongside other infectious diseases.
However, he cautioned that this does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat.
“It is therefore with great hope that I declare #COVID19 over as a global health emergency.
However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat.
Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every three minutes – and that’s just the deaths we know about”-@DrTedros pic.twitter.com/n6zad8qSdx
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 5, 2023
He also said that “the worst thing” any country could do at the moment is to let its guard down, dismantle the systems it has built, or tell its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry about.
Ghebreyesus highlighted that while seven million Covid-19 deaths have been reported to the WHO, the death toll is likely to be at least 20 million.
“At that time, outside China there were fewer than 100 reported [#COVID19] cases, and no reported deaths.
In the 3 years since then, COVID-19 has turned our world upside down.
Almost 7 million deaths have been reported to WHO, but we know the toll is several times higher – at…
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 5, 2023
But why?
Ghebreyesus noted that the pandemic has been on a downward trend, with population immunity increasing from both vaccination and infection.
In addition, the mortality rate and the pressure on healthcare systems has been easing, thereby allowing most countries to resume living as per normal.
“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…
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 5, 2023
The BBC also quoted WHO officials, who said that the mortality rate from Covid-19 had dropped from a peak of more than 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 on 24 April, 2023.
Top screenshot via WHO/YouTube
