The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a global public health emergency.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the announcement was made in a statement released on Friday, following the 15th meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, which was held on Thursday to discuss the ongoing pandemic.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has endorsed the committee’s resolution that COVID-19 no longer poses a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend,” Tedros said at a news conference Friday.
“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19. Yesterday, the emergency committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice,” he said.
This marks a significant shift from WHO’s declaration in January 2020, when the organization characterized the coronavirus outbreak as a PHEIC, six weeks before declaring it a pandemic.
