In the most official sense, COVID-19’s emergency status for the world has come to an end at long last.
Global (08 May, 2023)— It’s been a very long walk to freedom from the COVID-19 emergency era, but the end has officially arrived as the WHO announced recently.<
Just over three years since the world changed forever and became a real-life Black Mirror Episode, the World Health Organization declared that the virus is no longer a public health emergency at long last.
This decision came thanks to downward trends in hospitalisations, deaths and growth in populations’ immunity—a moment the pre-2020 world could’ve never imagined the significance of.
In the statement on the Emergency Committee shared the following:
“The WHO Director-General concurs with the advice offered by the Committee regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He determines that COVID-19 is now an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).”
Although the WHO encouraged countries to focus on long-term management of the virus as an ‘established health issue’, the overall conclusion is that COVID-19 is not the same threat to the world it was three years ago.
Taking to Twitter, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared:
“The end of the #COVID19 global health emergency is a moment for reflection. The painful lessions we have learned, the investments we have made, and the capacity we have built must be transformed into meaningful and lasting change.”
Here in South Africa, we learned many lessons too. Many of resilience, hope, community and kindness in the toughest times.
How we could help each other even when we were afraid, no matter where we came from or who needed a little extra kindness that day, week or year.
It might all be over (and we’re sure no South African will ever trust the phrase ‘just three weeks’ ever again) but those lessons are ours to keep forever, no matter what the world, country or space throws at us.
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