Covid No Longer A Global Public Health Emergency, Says WHO

"COVID-19 no longer public health emergency of international concern," WHO stated.

Representational Image.

Source : PTI

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday agreed to declassify the COVID-19 pandemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). At its 15th meeting on Covid-19 on Thursday, WHO's International Health Regulations Emergency Committee addressed the pandemic, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed that the public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, proclamation should be lifted.

“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend,” Tedros stated.

“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19,” Tedros said, adding that: “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 have accepted that advice.”

"As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions more continue to live with the debilitating effects of post Covid conditions," he stated.

Highlighting that the virus is here to stay, Tredors stated: "The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID19 is nothing to worry about."

"The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that #COVID19 is nothing to worry about"-@DrTedros

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 5, 2023

In January 2020, the WHO labelled the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of worldwide concern, roughly six weeks before classifying it as a pandemic.

A PHEIC is an agreement between nations to follow WHO recommendations for emergency management. Each country, in turn, declares its own public health emergency, which has legal ramifications. Countries utilise them to pool resources and relax restrictions in order to alleviate a crisis.

The United States' Covid-19 public health emergency is anticipated to conclude on May 11.