WHO declares end to global COVID-19 public health emergency

The spread of COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization said Friday. 

“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,” agency Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva.

Nearly 7 million people worldwide have died from the virus since the United Nations organization declared the emergency on January 30, 2020, according to official WHO data.