World
WHO Declares COVID Pandemic “Global Health Emergency” Is Over
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 emergency is over, ending a three-year designation it first adopted in January 2020.
The health body began using the word “pandemic” in March 2020 to alert the world to the perils of the virus, though the term bears no legal meaning.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend. Yesterday the emergency committee met for the fifteenth time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice. It’s therefore with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency.”
