WHO declares end to COVID global health emergency

The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Twitter that it does not consider COVID-19 to be a global health emergency anymore, but that it remains a global health threat.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement in a briefing on Friday, adding that, according to WHO data, the pandemic cost 20 million lives. The organisation puts the total number of recorded cases at 765.2 million.

WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Russian statistics office Rosstat claims that the disease took the lives of no less than 162,000 people in Russia in 2020 and a further 517,000 in 2021. In 2022, Rosstat stopped publishing statistics.

Russia was among the hardest hit countries due to high excess mortality. The restrictions, including the banning of mass events, reduced the flow of tourism and stunted the economy.

Russian authorities subsequently used the ban on events as a pretext for fines during protest demonstrations. The Moscow mayor’s office promised that it would lift the ban once WHO announces the end of the pandemic.