The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide.
WHO first declared COVID-19 to be an emergency more than three years ago. The U.N. health agency害羞草研究所檚 officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn害羞草研究所檛 come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. WHO says that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week.
害羞草研究所淚t害羞草研究所檚 with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency,害羞草研究所� WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
害羞草研究所淭hat does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat,害羞草研究所� he said, adding he wouldn害羞草研究所檛 hesitate to reconvene experts to reassess the situation should COVID-19 害羞草研究所減ut our world in peril.害羞草研究所�
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 bemoaned the damage that COVID-19 had done to the global community, saying the virus had shattered businesses, exacerbated political divisions and plunged millions into poverty. Tedros also noted that there were likely at least 20 million COVID-19 deaths, far more than the officially reported 7 million.
害羞草研究所淐OVID has changed our world and it has changed us,害羞草研究所� he said, warning that the risk of new variants still remained.
Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO害羞草研究所檚 emergencies chief, said it was incumbent on heads of states and other leaders to decide on how future health threats should be faced, given the numerous problems that crippled the world害羞草研究所檚 response to COVID-19. Countries are negotiating a pandemic treaty that some hope may spell out how future disease threats will be faced 害羞草研究所� but it害羞草研究所檚 unlikely any such treaty would be legally binding.
When the U.N. health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an on Jan. 30, 2020, it hadn害羞草研究所檛 yet been named COVID-19 and there were no major outbreaks beyond China.
More than three years later, the virus has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine.
In the U.S., the public health emergency declaration made regarding COVID-19 is set to expire on May 11, when wide-ranging measures to support the pandemic response, including vaccine mandates, will end. Many other countries, including Germany, France and Britain, dropped many of their provisions against the pandemic last year.
When Tedros declared COVID-19 to be an emergency in 2020, he said his greatest fear was the virus害羞草研究所� potential to spread in countries with weak health systems he described as 害羞草研究所渋ll-prepared.害羞草研究所�
In fact, some of the countries that suffered the worst COVID-19 death tolls were previously judged to be the best-prepared for a pandemic, including the U.S. and Britain. According to WHO data, the number of deaths reported in Africa account for just 3% of the global total.
WHO doesn害羞草研究所檛 害羞草研究所渄eclare害羞草研究所� pandemics, but first used the term to describe the outbreak in , when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica, long after many other scientists had said a pandemic was already underway.
WHO is the only agency mandated to coordinate the world害羞草研究所檚 response to acute health threats, but the organization faltered repeatedly as the coronavirus unfolded.
In January 2020, WHO publicly applauded China for its supposed speedy and transparent response, even though recordings of showed top officials were frustrated at the country害羞草研究所檚 lack of cooperation.
WHO also recommended against members of the public wearing masks to protect against COVID-19 for months, a mistake many health officials say cost lives.
Numerous scientists also slammed WHO害羞草研究所檚 reluctance to acknowledge that COVID-19 was frequently spread in the air and by people without symptoms, criticizing the agency害羞草研究所檚 lack of strong guidance to prevent such exposure.
Tedros was a of rich countries who hoarded the limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, warning that the world was on the brink of a 害羞草研究所渃atastrophic moral failure害羞草研究所� by failing to share shots with poor countries.
Most recently, WHO has been struggling to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, a challenging scientific endeavour that has also become politically fraught.
After a weeks-long visit to China, WHO released a in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most likely jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility that it originated in a lab as 害羞草研究所渆xtremely unlikely.害羞草研究所�
But the U.N. agency backtracked the following year, saying 害羞草研究所渒ey pieces of data害羞草研究所� were still missing and that it was premature to rule out that COVID-19 might have ties to a lab.
A panel commissioned by WHO to review its performance criticized China and other countries for not moving quicker to stop the virus and said the organization was constrained both by its limited finances and inability to compel countries to act.
害羞草研究所擬aria Cheng And Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press
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