WHO declares COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency after claiming at least 20 million lives

The World Health Organization said on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic, which in more than three years has claimed “at least 20 million” lives, sparked economic chaos and deepened inequality, no longer constitutes a global health emergency.

“I declare that COVID-19 is no longer considered a global health emergency,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, estimating that the epidemic had killed “at least 20 million people,” a toll three times higher than official estimates.

“For more than a year, the pandemic has taken a downward curve, as the population’s immunity from vaccination and infection has increased, deaths have decreased and pressure on health systems has decreased,” Ghebreyesus said in a press briefing broadcast live by the organization through its official Twitter account.

He added, “Over the past year, the Emergency Committee and the World Health Organization have been carefully analyzing data and studying when the correct time will be to lower the warning level,” noting that the Emergency Committee met yesterday for the fifteenth time and recommended declaring the end of the health emergency related to the Corona pandemic.

But he warned that the end of the health emergency from the COVID-19 pandemic “does not mean the end of it as a global health threat.”