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COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency

WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that they have detected a "downward trend" in the spread of the virus for more than a year.

Vacunas mascarilla contra el covid-19

(Pixabay)

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

COVID-19 is no longer an international health emergency. The pandemic that began in 2020 has been one of the most concerning issues for the World Health Organization (WHO) over the past three years, until now.

As announced by the head of the agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference on Friday, the coronavirus is no longer a "global health emergency":

For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend. This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19. 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.

The WHO decided to declare the end of the health emergency based on the data. According to the agency's director, a continuous “downward trend” has been detected recently, which has allowed the organization to eliminate its alert. Moreover, in the past ten weeks "the number of deaths has been minimal," he said. Thus, the pandemic that left "at least 20 million dead" is no longer as deadly as it was three years ago.

However, the WHO reminded that it is still necessary to be vigilant with respect to the coronavirus, since it "is here to stay." For this reason, the organization assured, they had taken the decision to end the health emergency but they did so with "caution." This caution was also used by Tedros Ghebreyesus to make another point clear: the WHO did not rule out declaring a health emergency again if the situation changed.

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