Coronavirus no longer qualifies as global emergency, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a global health emergency, killing almost 7 million people in more than three years.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially downgraded the disease on Friday, while stressing that it remains a serious disease. “Global Health Threat.” The decision to lower the alert level was made after a meeting of experts on Thursday.
Although “emergency phase” The World Health Organization insists it has concluded that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week. The World Health Organization first described Covid-19 as a pandemic in March 2020, when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica.
While the disease claimed only a few hundred lives at the time, the declaration of the pandemic led to unprecedented lockdowns and restrictions on movement and commerce, resulting in an economic contraction that is still being felt today. Since then, some 764 million cases have been recorded globally, and 5 billion people are reported to have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
While most countries have abandoned pandemic control measures, the United States remains under a public health emergency that does not expire until next week. More than 1.1 million people have died from Covid-19 in the United States, more than any other country, according to World Health Organization statistics.
In 2021, WHO announced that the virus had jumped from animals to humans, only to reverse it and admit it the following year “Key Data” Missing when assessing whether it could have come from a lab.
Earlier this week, the group announced that the head of an international delegation sent to China to investigate the origins of the pandemic had been fired for sexual misconduct. Peter Ben Embarek claims his team has come under political pressure, including from outside China.
Frustrated by the lack of a coordinated global response to its emergency declaration, the WHO has tasked its 194 member states with drafting a global treaty to deal with future epidemics. While the agreement is ostensibly aimed at protecting people from global health threats, critics warn it could usurp national sovereignty and individual rights.
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