2023-05-05 13:41:00
(CNN) — Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the World Health Organization announced Friday.
The WHO International Health Regulations Emergency Committee discussed the pandemic this Thursday at its 15th meeting on covid-19, and the organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, agreed that the declaration of a public health emergency of international concern , or PHEIC, should terminate.
“For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend,” Tedros said at a press conference on Friday.
“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19,” Tedros said. “Yesterday, the emergency committee met for the fifteenth time and recommended that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I accepted that advice.”
The organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020, regarding six weeks before characterizing it as a pandemic.
A PHEIC creates an agreement between countries to comply with the WHO recommendations for emergency management. Each country, in turn, declares its own public health emergency, declarations that carry legal weight. Countries use them to pool resources and dispense with rules to alleviate a crisis.
The United States is ready to let its covid-19 public health emergency end on May 11.
There have been more than 765 million confirmed cases of covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to WHO data. Nearly 7 million people have died so far. Europe had the most confirmed cases overall, but the Americas reported the most deaths. Approximately 1 in 6 total deaths occurred in the US.
Cases peaked in December 2022 when the omicron subvariant swept across the globe, hitting the western Pacific with particular force. But billions of doses of vaccines have been administered around the world, and deaths have remained well below previous peaks.
Now, covid-19 cases and deaths are the lowest in three years. Still, more than 3,500 people died in the last week of April and billions remain unvaccinated.
Tedros said that if necessary, he would not hesitate to call another emergency committee meeting and declare a global health emergency once more if there is a significant increase in Covid-19 cases or deaths in the future.
“Covid-19 has left and continues to leave deep scars on our world. Those scars should serve as a permanent reminder of the potential for new viruses to emerge with devastating consequences,” Tedros said.
“One of the biggest tragedies of covid-19 is that it didn’t have to be this way. We have the tools and technologies to better prepare for pandemics, detect them earlier, respond faster, and communicate their impact. But globally, a lack of coordination, a lack of equity and a lack of solidarity meant that those tools were not used as effectively as they might have been,” Tedros said. “We must promise ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we will never We will make those mistakes once more.”
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