COVID-19 no more a global health emergency – WHO declares

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern, three years after announcing the novel coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland that the global health body’s emergency committee advised that COVID-19 no longer constitutes an emergency at the global level.

“It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency. However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat,” Dr Tedros said.

Dr Tedros noted that COVID-19 has caused at least 7 million reported deaths globally and disrupted health systems in many countries.

He said the virus is expected to continue causing waves of infections and deaths around the world for the foreseeable future.

WHO first declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, when there were fewer than 100 reported cases of the disease outside China and no reported deaths.

Since then, more than 540 million COVID-19 cases and over 7 million deaths have been reported worldwide.

While COVID-19 will no longer be considered a global health emergency, WHO urged countries to continue efforts to combat the virus.

Dr Tedros emphasized that the decision to end the health emergency “does not mean the virus is gone” and established a review committee to provide recommendations for ongoing management of the virus.

In Ghana, the first two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on March 12, 2020.

The cases were imported by persons who had travelled from Norway and Turkey.

Ghana recorded its first COVID-19 death on March 23, 2020. As of October 6, 2022, Ghana had recorded a total of 161,370 cases and 1,445 deaths, according to the Ghana Health Service.