“It is with hope that I announce the end of the global state of emergency for COVID-19” said its CEO World Health Organization, Tedros Andan Gebregesus. However, he clarified that “this does not mean that COVID-19 has ceased to be a global threat. Over the past week, one life has died every three minutes due to illness. And those are just the deaths we know about. Right now, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions of people continue to live with the effects of post-COVID.” The WHO Director-General stressed: “The virus is not going anywhere. (…) There remains a risk of new variants emerging that will trigger new epidemic waves. The worst thing any country can do right now is stop being on guard and make it clear that COVID-19 is no longer our concern.”

The decision to end the public health emergency of international concern that the world entered in January 2020 (“pandemic” was declared by the WHO in March 2020) was made on the recommendation of a competent committee and in accordance with reduction of epidemiological indicators and a high level of immunity of the population. To date, the WHO has reported nearly 7 million deaths, although the actual number is estimated to be over 20 million.