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- COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said.
- Still, the disease continues to kill 1 person globally every 3 minutes, WHO added.
- Countries are now expected to shift from "emergency mode" to managing COVID-19 like other diseases.
The World Health Organization officially declared an end to the COVID-19 global health emergency on Friday morning, acknowledging that the disease is here to stay — but still a threat that kills hundreds across the world each day.
In a press conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said that while the health emergency is now over, countries will now need to shift to manage COVID-19 like other infectious diseases.
And Ghebreyesus warned that countries shouldn't ignore COVID-19.
"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 COVID-19 is nothing to worry about," he said.
Ghebreyesus added that COVID-19 killed one person every three minutes last week — "and that's just the deaths we know about.
"This virus is here to stay. It is still killing, and it is still changing," he said.
According to the World Health Organization, 6.9 million people have died from COVID-19 since the virus began to spread in early 2020.