The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that COVID-19 remains a global health emergency, nearly three years after it was first declared as one.

"While the global situation has obviously improved since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the virus continues to change, and there remain many risks and uncertainties. This pandemic has surprised us before and very well could again," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Wednesday.

It was on January 30, 2020 that the WHO made the declaration following a two-day discussion by a team of international experts that COVID-19 was a global emergency.