Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO

The World Health Organisation has announced that COVID-19 pandemic is over as a global health emergency.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, made the announcement while addressing a media briefing on COVID-19 and global health issues.

"It is therefore with great hope that I declare #COVID-19 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," he said.

"As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions more continue to live with the debilitating effects of post-#COVID-19 condition," the director general of WHO added.

The WHO had declared COVID-19 as a global emergency in January 2020.

"1221 days ago, WHO learned of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China. On the 30th January 2020, on the advice of an emergency committee convened under the international health regulations, I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the global outbreak of #COVID-19 -- the highest level of alarm under international law," Tedros said.

"At that time, outside China there were fewer than 100 reported [#COVID-19] 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 least 20 million," he noted.

"What this news means is that it is time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing #COVID-19 alongside other infectious diseases," he added.