The spread of Covid-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization declared on Friday.

“Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference.

“It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID19 over as a global health emergency. However, that does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat. Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every three minutes – and that’s just the deaths we know about, As we speak, thousands of people around the world are fighting for their lives in intensive care units. And millions more continue to live with the debilitating effects of postCOVID19 condition” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that #COVID19 is nothing to worry about. What this news means is that it is time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing #COVID19 alongside other infectious diseases” he added.