Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee discussed the pandemic on Thursday at its 15th meeting on Covid-19, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus concurred that the public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, declaration should end.

“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend,” Tedros said at a news conference Friday.

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 Covid pandemic is no longer a global emergency, according to leaders at the World Health Organization (WHO) — a symbolic moment that the virus's reign over the world is near its end.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the United Nations organization, said Friday: 'It's with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency.'

However, WHO officials say the virus remains a threat and the pandemic persists. While the virus poses a minimal threat to the developed world, it remains a danger in other areas.