Global Health: COVID is no longer a global health emergency

She said Global Health Organization Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic, which in more than three years has claimed the lives of “at least 20 million people”, sparked economic chaos and deepened inequality, no longer constitutes a global health emergency. Warning at the same time that the epidemic is not over.

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

The announcement came after the WHO’s independent Emergency Committee on Covid agreed during its 15th meeting Thursday that the crisis no longer merits the highest level of preparedness.

However, Tedros warned that the decision does not mean that the danger has passed, indicating the possibility of re-declaring a state of emergency if the situation changes.

“The worst thing any country can do right now is use this announcement as a reason to let its guard down, to dismantle the systems that it has created, or to send a message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about,” he said.

In turn, Maria Van Kerkhove, who has been responsible for combating the pandemic at the World Health Organization since its inception, told reporters, “We cannot let our guard down,” explaining, “The crisis phase, the emergency phase, has ended, but Covid has not ended.”