WHO announces that Covid-19 “is no longer a health emergency of international concern”

The maximum alert is lifted. “It is with great hope that I declare that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern.”, said the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Friday, May 5. This level of alert, the highest that the UN body can pronounce, had been in effect since the end of January 2020. During these almost three and a half years, the pandemic has “at least 20 million dead”estimated the boss of the WHO.

“For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend, herd immunity is increasing due to vaccination and infections, mortality is decreasing and the pressure on health systems is reducing.he continued. This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before.”

For these reasons, the WHO emergency committee, which met on Thursday, recommended lowering the alert level. “This does not mean that Covid-19 is no longer a global health threat”however, warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.