WHO lifts corona health emergency
The corona pandemic is no longer considered an international health emergency. That was decided by the World Health Organization.
According to the WHO, at least 20 million people have died worldwide as a result of the pandemic.
More than three years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of the coronavirus a global pandemic, the organization has lifted the international health emergency.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus justified the decision, which the WHO made on the basis of recommendations from an expert panel, for more than a year.
The corona pandemic is now an “established and ongoing health problem”. In the meantime, most countries have returned to life as it was before the outbreak of the pandemic. “However, that does not mean that COVID-19 is over as a global health threat,” Tedros warned.
Public health emergency declared at the end of January 2020
The WHO had already declared an international health emergency – and thus the highest alert level – at the end of January 2020 due to the rapid spread of the virus in China. It was a “health emergency of international importance”, she justified this step at the time.
The responsible expert committee last met in January of this year and still stuck to the classification.
More than 20 million corona deaths worldwide
With the end of the health emergency, the WHO also revised upwards its previous estimate of the global death toll in connection with a corona infection. The WHO now assumes that at least 20 million people worldwide have died in connection with an infection. And the actual number of victims is probably even higher, according to Tedros.
The US-based Johns Hopkins University had already discontinued its statistics on the internationally reported number of fatalities and new infections on March 10th. By that time, the institute had recorded more than 676 million corona cases around the world.
In Germany, on the other hand, the health authorities continue to transmit case numbers to the Robert Koch Institute. In total, the RKI has registered more than 38 million corona infections since the virus appeared in Germany. According to statistics, 173,307 citizens died after contracting the virus.
States decide for themselves on protective measures
Even with the end of the international health emergency, the decisions on possible protective measures against the spread of the virus still lie with the individual countries.
