The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Covid-19 pandemic no longer qualifies as a global emergency.
The announcement marks a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least seven million people worldwide.
The WHO said that even though the emergency phase is over, the pandemic has not come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in south-east Asia and the Middle East.
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The UN health agency said that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week.
During a press conference in Geneva WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing.
“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19.
“It’s therefore with great hope that I declared Covid-19 over as a global health emergency."
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