Investing.com -- The spread of COVID-19 no longer constitutes a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, bringing closer to an end a pandemic that has taken the lives of millions of people, caused massive social upheaval, and roiled the worldwide economy.
In a statement, the WHO said that its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, determined COVID-19 is now "an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern" - or PHEIC, the highest possible level of alarm under international health rules.
Almost seven million deaths as a result of COVID-19 have been reported to the WHO in the three years since the outbreak of the pandemic, although Ghebreyesus noted in a news conference that the toll could be at least 20 million.
But Ghebreyesus said that the pandemic has been on a "downward trend" for more than a year, as population immunity increases from vaccinations and infections. He added WHO officials, who have been considering when it would be the appropriate moment to lower the designation of COVID-19, recommended that he declare an end to the public health emergency.
"I have accepted that advice," Ghebreyesus said. "It's therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency."
However, he stressed that this does not mean that COVID-19 is no longer a global health threat, adding that last week the disease claimed lives "every three minutes - and that's just the deaths we know about." According to WHO data cited by Reuters, the death rate in the week to April 24 was a little over 3,500 people, down from a peak of more than 100,000 in January 2021.