WHO declares end to Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 no longer represented global health emergency at a press conference on 5 May

The announcement follows a decision by the agency to reduce its alert level, following a meeting of experts the previous day.

A similar WHO committee meeting took place in January 2023, however no decision to end the global emergency was ultimately made.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated: “It is with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency.” However, he added that the decision ‘does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat’, acknowledging that the risk of new variants still remained.

The declaration follows a steady downward trend in Covid-19 cases over the past year, with most countries now operating without any additional pandemic-era measures in place.