The World Health Organization has lifted the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) for COVID-19.

In a press conference held today, Friday, May 5, 2023, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "COVID-19 has been so much more than a health crisis, disrupting economies, travel, shattering businesses and plunging millions into poverty."

He went on to state that for more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend and "this trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19."

Then he made the pronouncement: "Therefore, with great hope, I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency."

The end of the emergency declaration comes more than three years after Tedros announced it on Jan. 30, 2020. At the time, there were fewer than 10,000 cases of the virus, most of them in China.