The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a global health emergency, after more than three years and nearly 7 million dead.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially downgraded the status of the disease on Friday while stressing it remained a “global health threat.” The decision to lower the alert level was made following a meeting of experts on Thursday.
While the “emergency phase” has concluded, thousands of people were still dying every week from the virus, the WHO insisted. The WHO first described Covid-19 as a pandemic in March 2020, when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica.
While the disease had claimed just a few hundred lives by that time, the pandemic declaration resulted in unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions on movement and commerce, causing economic contractions that are still being felt. Since then, about 764 million cases have been recorded globally, while 5 billion people have reportedly received at least one dose of a vaccine.