COVID is no longer a global health emergency: WHO

The World Health Organization on Friday said that COVID-19 is no longer a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide. 

The WHO stated that, while the emergency phase has ended, the pandemic has not, citing recent surges in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. According to the United Nations, thousands of people are still dying from the virus each week.

"It's with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat."

On Thursday, the WHO's Emergency Committee met and suggested that the UN-agency proclaim an end to the public health emergency of international concern that has been in effect for more than three years. 

Lifting it is a sign of the world's progress in these areas, but COVID-19 is here to stay, according to the WHO, even though it no longer signals an emergency.

“COVID has changed the world, and it has changed us. And that’s the way it should be. If we go back to how things were before COVID-19, we will have failed to learn our lessons, and failed our future generations,” said Ghebreyesus.

More than three years after UN health agency declared coronavirus as an international crisis, the virus has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Meanwhile, India saw a single-day increase of 3,611 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to Union health ministry data published on Friday. The active cases in the country have decreased to 33,232 from 36,244.

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