WHO says COVID-19 no longer a global public health emergency
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Key takeaways:
- WHO ended the COVID-19 global public health emergency that was declared on Jan. 30, 2020.
- On May 11, the U.S. will end its own national and public health emergency declarations for COVID-19.
WHO said Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic no longer constitutes a global public health emergency of international concern, citing reduced risks to human health driven by high population-level immunity and vaccination.
The United States has also announced that it will end its COVID-19-related emergencies on May 11, which will have broad implications for the country’s response.
WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee met for the 15th time during the pandemic and ultimately decided to recommend an end to the global public health emergency, noting declines in deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19 and increasing population immunity to SARS-CoV-2, WHO said.
WHO declared the emergency in January 2020, more than a month before it began classifying it as a pandemic. At the time, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said the primary reason for declaring the emergency was “the potential of the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, ill prepared to deal with it.”
Ending the emergency does not mean that COVID-19 is over, Tedros said Friday.
“Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every 3 minutes — and that’s just the deaths we know about. As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units,” he said. “This virus is here to stay. It is still killing, and it’s still changing. The risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths.”
He 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.”
“What this news means is that it is time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing COVID-19 alongside other infectious diseases,” he said. “If need be, I will not hesitate to convene another emergency committee should COVID-19 once again put our world in peril.
References:
- WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing – 5 May 2023. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing---5-may-2023. Published May 5, 2023. Accessed May 5, 2023.
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