WHO downgrades Covid pandemic, says it's no longer emergency

The World Health Organization WHO said Friday that Covid19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered onceunthinkable lockdowns upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwideWHO said that even though the emergency phase was over the pandemic hasnt come to an end noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East The UN health agency says that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every weekIts with great hope that I declare Covid19 over as a global health emergency WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saidThat does not mean Covid19 is over as a global health threat he said adding he wouldnt hesitate to reconvene experts to reassess the situation should Covid19 put our world in perilTedros said the pandemic had been on a downward trend for more than a year acknowledging that most countries have already returned to life before Covid19He bemoaned the damage that Covid19 had done to the global community saying the virus had shattered businesses and plunged millions into povertyCovid has changed our world and it has changed us he said warning that the risk of new variants still remainedWhen the UN health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an international crisis on Jan 30 2020 it hadnt yet been named Covid19 and there were no major outbreaks beyond ChinaMore than three years later the virus has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccineIn the US the public health emergency declaration made regarding Covid19 is set to expire on May 11 when wideranging measures to support the pandemic response including vaccine mandates will end Many other countries including Germany France and Britain dropped many of their provisions against the pandemic last yearWhen Tedros declared Covid19 to be an emergency in 2020 he said his greatest fear was the virus potential to spread in countries with weak health systems he described as illpreparedIn fact some of the countries that suffered the worst Covid19 death tolls were previously judged to be the bestprepared for a pandemic including the US and Britain According to WHO data the number of deaths reported in Africa account for just 337 of the global totalAlso Read Active Covid cases in country decrease to 33 232WHO made its decision to lower its highest level of alert on Friday after convening an expert group on Thursday The UN agency doesnt declare pandemics but first used the term to describe the outbreak in March 2020 when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica long after many other scientists had said a pandemic was already underwayWHO is the only agency mandated to coordinate the worlds response to acute health threats but the organisation faltered repeatedly as the coronavirus unfolded In January 2020 WHO publicly applauded China for its supposed speedy and transparent response even though recordings of private meetings obtained by The Associated Press showed top officials were frustrated at the countrys lack of cooperationWHO also recommended against members of the public wearing masks to protect against Covid19 for months a mistake many health officials say cost livesNumerous scientists also slammed WHOs reluctance to acknowledge that Covid19 was frequently spread in the air and by people without symptoms criticising the agencys lack of strong guidance to prevent such exposureTedros was a vociferous critic of rich countries who hoarded the limited supplies of Covid19 vaccines warning that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure by failing to share shots with poor countriesMost recently WHO has been struggling to investigate the origins of the coronavirus a challenging scientific endeavour that has also become politically fraughtAfter a weekslong visit to China WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that Covid19 most likely jumped into humans from animals dismissing the possibility that it originated in a lab as extremely unlikelyBut the UN agency backtracked the following year saying key pieces of data were still missing and that it was premature to rule out that Covid19 might have ties to a labA panel commissioned by WHO to review its performance criticized China and other countries for not moving quicker to stop the virus and said the organization was constrained both by its limited finances and inability to compel countries to actThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever