WHO DECLARES END TO COVID GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY

The World Health Organization ended the global emergency status for COVID-19 on Friday more than three years after its original declaration, and said countries should now manage the virus that killed more than 6.9 million people along with other infectious diseases.

The global health agency’s Emergency Committee met on Thursday and recommended the UN organization declare an end to the coronavirus crisis as a “public health emergency of international concern” – its highest level of alert – which has been in place since Jan. 30, 2020.

“It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that the end of the emergency did not mean COVID was over as a global health threat.