According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there is no longer a “global health emergency” caused by COVID-19. Three years have passed since the virus was first labelled a pandemic in January 2020, prompting this announcement.
According to BBC, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement on April 24 saying that “the virus’ death rate had dropped from a peak of more than 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 on April 24.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Hebreyesus, the head of the WHO, estimated that at least seven million people passed away as a result of the pandemic.
Even so, he cautioned that the virus remained a major concern and said that the “true figure was ‘likely’ closer to 20 million deaths.” This is roughly three times the official estimate.
“Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I’ve accepted that advice. It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency.”
He cautioned that the danger was not resolved just because COVID-19 had been removed from the most sensitive level. He said emergency status might be restored if things changed.
“The worst thing a country can do now is use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about,” he said.
In January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued the initial declaration of a global public health emergency.
Vaccines were a game-changer during the epidemic, saving the lives of millions of people who would have probably died from the disease. Vaccines are available, but in many countries they have not yet reached the people who need them.
Even though the official state of emergency has expired, the threat still remains, according to Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organisation’s Health Emergencies Programme.
“We fully expect that this virus will continue to transmit, and this is the history of pandemics… It took decades for the final traces of the 1918 pandemic virus to disappear. In most cases, pandemics truly end when the next pandemic begins.”
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