Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, December 20, 2021.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
The spread of Covid-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization declared on Friday.
“For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva.
“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19,” Tedros said.
“It’s therefore with great hope that I declared Covid-19 over as a global health emergency,” he said.
Nearly 7 million people have died from the virus worldwide since the WHO first declared the emergency on January 30, 2020.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
