WHO Ends Covid’s Global Health Emergency Status After More Than 3 Years

Topline

After more than three years, the World Health Organization terminated the global health emergency designation for Covid-19 Friday morning in a mostly symbolic motion as officials warned the removal of the designation doesn’t mean the public health threat is over.

LANDOVER, MARYLAND – MARCH 30: Healthcare professionals prepare to screen people for the coronavirus … [+] at a testing site erected by the Maryland National Guard in a parking lot at FedEx Field March 30, 2020 in Landover, Maryland. The guard, in cooperation with the state of Maryland and Prince Georges County, said the site will be able to test about 100 people a day for COVID-19 if they have been recommended by a doctor. There has been 1413 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Maryland and 15 deaths since the start of the global pandemic. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

WHO ended the global “public health emergency of international concern” designation for Covid-19 after more than three years and 765 million reported cases and nearly 7 million deaths.

Officials said the virus will continue to have waves and they will continue to track it as it evolves but “the crisis phase, the emergency phase is over.”

On May 11, the Covid-19 public health emergency—which allows the government flexibility and the ability to make emergency declarations and programs – will expire, and many other countries have already ended their emergency statutes and restrictions.

The WHO’s original emergency declaration was made on Jan. 30, 2020 when just 213 people were known to have died of the virus, the New York Times reported.

Crucial Quote

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, said: “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 Covid-19 is nothing to worry about.”

Key Background

When WHO declares a public health emergency of international concern, an agreement is created between member countries to follow WHO’s recommendations to manage the outbreak and declare their own local public health emergencies, and an international committee is made to monitor the situation. Since Covid’s status as such, WHO has also declared mpox as a public health emergency of international concern and it is now the only ongoing emergency.

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