Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO

GENEVA: The Covid-19 pandemic, which for over three years has killed millions of people, wreaked economic havoc and deepened inequalities, no longer constitutes a global health emergency, the WHO said Friday.

It is “with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, estimating that the pandemic had killed “at least 20 million” people, nearly three times the official estimate.

The independent committee meets every three months to discuss the pandemic and reports to WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who then decides whether it remains an international emergency.

WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, ” For the past year, the Emergency Committee and WHO  have been analysing the data carefully and considering when the time would be right to lower the level of alarm.” he said.

“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.”

“Covid-19 has exposed and exacerbated political fault lines, within and between nations. It has eroded trust between people, governments and institutions, fuelled by a torrent of mis- and disinformation. And it has laid bare the searing inequalities of our world, with the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest hit, and the last to receive access to vaccines and other tools” Dr Tedros said.