The World Health Organization declared an end to the Covid-19 emergency, signaling that one of the most deadly and economically devastating pandemics in modern history is receding as the disease that caused it becomes a routine illness. 

Covid-19 is here to stay, but the pandemic has been in a downward trend for more than a year because people around the world have built up immunity to the virus, the WHO said on Friday. The trend has enabled most countries to return to pre-pandemic life, even as Covid-19 continues to spread.

The move doesn’t trigger changes in government funding or services, said Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, who has advised the WHO. But it marks a long-awaited milestone, the biggest sign yet that the pandemic is reaching a new stage after more than three years of tragedy and deprivation. 

“The global public and political leaders have long moved on,” Dr. Gostin said. 

Much of the world’s population has been sickened by the virus that was discovered spreading in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. More than 6.9 million people have died globally, according to the WHO. In the U.S. alone the death toll is more than 1.1 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many others have lingering health problems after infection.