The World Health Organization (WHO) agreed on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic would no longer be considered a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed that the PHEIC declaration should end when the WHO's International Health Regulations Emergency Committee discussed COVID-19 at its 15th meeting.

Tedros said the pandemic has been showing a downward trend over a year, which "has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19."

"The emergency committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice," he said.

The WHO first gave COVID its highest level of alert on January 30, 2020, and the panel has continued to apply the label ever since, at meetings held every three months.

In the early stage of the pandemic in 2020, countries around the world scrambled to roll out health guidelines and restrictions such as limiting people-to-people interactions in hopes of slowing down the coronavirus as drug makers fought against the clock to develop vaccines against the virus.

The pandemic also caused grave disruption of health systems, and went on from a health crisis to an economic one, "erasing trillions from [the] GDP" and "plunging millions into poverty," Tedros said. The travel restrictions, social distancing and other control measures have put "millions of people" into "loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression," he added.

After tireless efforts to contain the pandemic over three years, the increasing population in the world has built up certain immunity against the virus after vaccine shots or infections.The virus has evolved to be different strains which are more contagious yet less severe as well. In late 2022, the world started opening up and international travel resumed gradually.

A number of countries, such as the United States, have recently begun lifting their domestic states of emergency.

According to the WHO, there have been more than 765 million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the emergence of the pandemic and nearly 7 million deaths from the contagious respiratory disease.

China reported its first COVID-19 case in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The National Health Commission classified the virus as a Class B infectious disease but with Class A control measures on January 20, 2020. After over three years of efforts in fighting the virus, China downgraded management of the disease from Class A to Class B on January 8 this year and declared a major and decisive victory in COVID-19 prevention and control on February 16.