WHO: COVID is No Longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

The coronavirus disease, otherwise known as COVID-19, is no longer deemed a public health emergency of international concern. The World Health Organization made the announcement today, after more than three years since the virus first emerged. But the organization quickly added that the shift in status does not mean that COVID-19 is over as a global health threat, pointing to deaths that the disease is still claiming every few minutes globally. The WHO declared the pandemic a public health emergency of international concern at the end of January, 2020, and since then, the virus has claimed almost seven million lives. But the virus is still very much present, with well over a half a million confirmed cases globally and over three thousand deaths just two weeks ago. In Belize, the pandemic was first detected in March 2020 in San Pedro and spread throughout the country, claiming six hundred and eighty-eight lives officially, and over seventy thousand, seven hundred recorded cases of the virus.