COVID-19 no longer a global emergency: What it means.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has downgraded COVID-19 from a global emergency, marking the symbolic end of the pandemic that has killed at least 7 million people worldwide. However, WHO officials noted that the pandemic has not come to an end, with recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the risk of new variants still remained and that the pandemic had changed the world. He also noted that there were likely at least 20 million COVID-19 deaths, far more than the officially reported 7 million.