The announcement was made by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at an online press conference in Geneva, Switzerland. However, he made it clear that this decision does not mean that COVID-19 is no longer a threat to global health and that extreme caution is still needed.

WHO officials estimate that the global death toll from COVID-19 could be “at least 20 million,” nearly three times the official figure of about 6.9 million deaths. As of May 3, official figures showed that more than 765 million people had contracted the disease.

The WHO first raised the highest alert level for COVID-19 on January 30, 2020. This alert level has been maintained by the WHO's global health expert committee at meetings held every three months since then. In March 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease spread rapidly worldwide .

According to WHO data, the death rate from COVID-19 has decreased from a record of more than 100,000 people/week in January 2021 to more than 3,500 people/week in the week from April 14 to 21./.

According to VNA