The World Health Organization has said COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency.
A statement on Friday stated that the decision was reached at WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee held Thursday at its 15th meeting on the pandemic.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also agreed with the committee’s resolution that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend,” Tedros said at a news conference Friday.
“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19. Yesterday, the emergency committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice,” he said.
The global health body had declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020, about six weeks before characterizing it as a pandemic.
