AMMAN — COVID-19 no longer represents a global health emergency,
the World Health Organization said on Friday, a major step towards the end of
the pandemic that has killed more than 6.9 million people, disrupted the global
economy, and ravaged communities.
اضافة اعلان
According to Reuters, the WHO's Emergency Committee met on
Thursday and recommended the UN-agency declare an end to the public health
emergency of international concern, which has been in place for over three
years.
"It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19
over as a global health emergency," said WHO Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding the end of the emergency did not mean COVID was
over as a global health threat.
The WHO's emergency committee first declared that COVID
represented its highest level of alert more than three years ago, on January
30, 2020. The status helps focus international attention on a health threat, as
well as bolstering collaboration on vaccines and treatments.
Lifting it is a sign of the progress the world has made in these
areas, but COVID-19 is here to stay, the WHO has said, even if it no longer
represents an emergency.
"COVID has changed the world, and it has changed us. And
that's the way it should be. If we go back to how things were before COVID-19,
we will have failed to learn our lessons, and failed our future
generations," said Ghebreyesus.
Death rateThe
death rate has slowed from a peak of more than 100,000 people per week in
January 2021 to just over 3,500 in the week to April 24, 2023, according to WHO
data.
The WHO does not declare the beginning or end of pandemics,
although it did start using the term for COVID in March 2020.
Last
year, US President Joe Biden said the pandemic was over. Like a number of other countries, the
world's biggest economy has begun dismantling its domestic state of emergency
for COVID, meaning it will stop paying for vaccines among other benefits.
Other regions have taken similar steps. The EU said in April
last year the emergency phase of the pandemic was over, and the WHO's African
head, Matshidiso Moeti, said in December it was time to move to routine
management of COVID across the continent.
Ending
the emergency could mean that international collaboration or funding efforts
are also brought to an end or shift in focus, although many have already
adapted as the pandemic has receded in different regions.
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