WHO downgrades Covid to 'no longer a global health emergency'

In the UK there have been more than 220,000 deaths associated with coronavirus since it first hit back in early 2020. Credit: PA

Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the World Health Organization has declared.

But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the virus, which has killed more than seven million people worldwide, is still a global health threat.

“It’s with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency,” he said, adding: “That does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat."

Dr Tedros said the virus is still posing a danger in much of Asia and the UN health agency says that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week.

Dr K Srinath Reddy, who led India’s Public Health Foundation through the pandemic, said the decision to lift the emergency was appropriate, because of the high levels globally of immunity to Covid, induced by vaccination or infection, or both.

“It no longer possesses the same level of danger,” he said, adding that Covid “has achieved a level of equilibrium, a certain type of coexistence with the human host.”

In the UK there have been more than 220,000 deaths associated with coronavirus since it first hit back in early 2020, but protection among Britons is high, with more than nine in every 10 people aged 12 years and over having received at least two vaccinations.

NHS Director of Vaccinations and Screening Steve Russell recently said: “The Covid vaccine still has a crucial role to play in protecting those at greatest risk of severe illness from the virus, including those with a weakened immune system as well as all aged 75 and above."

People in the UK are still being admitted to hospital with the virus but the numbers are low compared to where they once were.

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Covid-19 hospital admissions remain highest among over-75s, with the rate currently standing at 34.9 admissions per 100,000 people for 75-84 year-olds and 74.5 per 100,000 for those aged 85 and above.

The threat of new variants also remains, with one mutation in India responsible for a huge surge in infections.

Dr Tedros said the WHO would not hesitate to reconvene experts to reassess the situation should COVID-19 “put our world in peril.”

UK Health Security Agency said: "It is not unexpected to see new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge. UKHSA continues to analyse all available data relating to SARS-CoV-2 variants in the UK and abroad and is monitoring the situation closely.

"Vaccination remains our best defence against future Covid-19 waves, so it is still as important as ever that people come to take up all the doses for which they are eligible as soon as possible."