WHO declares the COVID pandemic is no longer an emergency and downgrades it.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 no longer a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that new variants could yet emerge. The death toll was estimated to be at least 20 million, and the pandemic had shattered businesses, exacerbated political divisions, led to the spread of misinformation and plunged millions into poverty. Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said it was incumbent on heads of states and other leaders to negotiate a wide-ranging pandemic treaty to decide how future health threats should be faced. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine.

In the U.S., the public health emergency declaration made regarding COVID-19 is set to expire on May 11, and many other countries have dropped most of their provisions against the pandemic last year. WHO is the only agency mandated to coordinate the world’s response to acute health threats, but the organization has faltered repeatedly as the coronavirus unfolded. WHO has struggled to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, concluding that it most likely jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility that it originated in a lab as “extremely unlikely”. Mark Woolhouse described COVID-19 as a "once-in-a-lifetime disaster" and noted that the global community missed opportunities to stop the virus earlier, leading to self-inflicted harm. Lessons need to be learned.