The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency.
WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee discussed the pandemic on Thursday at its 15th meeting on Covid-19.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emerged from the meeting and told reporters that they concurred that the public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC declaration should end.
“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,” Tedros told a news conference.
“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.”
In January 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, about six weeks before characterizing it as a pandemic.
A PHEIC drives unity and creates an accord between countries to stick to WHO’s recommendations for controlling the emergency.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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