WHO has canceled the COVID-19 pandemic status: how the disease has affected the world and what will happen now
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The coronavirus pandemic has been going on for more than 3 years. During this time, the disease has claimed millions of lives, led to border and business closures, caused a global economic recession and exacerbated already existing inequalities in society. Over the past year, however, levels of disease have decreased and COVID-19 is no longer pandemic. Find out more about what this means and how it will affect the lives of citizens
COVID-19 has been a global health emergency for more than three years. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has finally decided to remove the coronavirus from pandemic status. We will tell you whether this will change the situation with quarantines and how countries will continue to respond to the spread of the disease.
As we recall, the coronavirus suddenly made headlines in early 2020, when news spread around the world that a hospital in Wuhan, China, had recorded an unusual increase in cases of severe pneumonia with an unexplained cause.
In a fairly short time, this disease was reported almost all over the world, including in Ukraine. On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, and two weeks later, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.
At the end of 2020, the world heard the good news that scientists had invented a vaccine against the coronavirus, and mass vaccination began around the world.
As of May 2023, more than 765 million cases of coronavirus have been reported worldwide, with more than 6.9 million deaths confirmed, making the COVID-19 pandemic one of the deadliest in history. The United States of America has suffered the most from the disease with the following figures: 106 million cases and 1.1 million deaths.
How has the coronavirus affected tourism?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on tourism around the world. One of the first measures taken in most countries was to close borders and ban international travel, which led to severe restrictions on tourism.
Many countries closed their borders to tourists, which resulted in a reduction in tourist flows to record levels. Many airlines were forced to cancel many flights, resulting in a decrease in passenger numbers and a significant decline in revenues.
- Ukraine
During the peak of the pandemic, Ukrainian tourism suffered huge losses, in principle, just like in other countries. Foreign arrivals in Ukraine have almost quadrupled.
In 2020 alone, the Ukrainian treasury lost billions of dollars due to quarantine restrictions on foreign tourists. In addition, the quarantine and border closures have significantly reduced Ukrainians' spending on travel abroad.
The global tourism situation has now stabilized. After the mass vaccination of the population began, many countries allowed foreign visitors.
Coronavirus in Ukraine continues
Despite the fact that the World Health Organization has removed COVID-19 from pandemic status, the coronavirus still poses a threat to the population. According to the latest data, about 100 people die of the disease every week in Ukraine.
Due to the ongoing threat, the government has extended the state of emergency until June 30, 2023. Therefore, no major changes related to quarantine restrictions should be expected for the time being.
However, the WHO's decision does not mean that COVID-19 has ceased to be a threat, but only that vaccination of the world's population has yielded results and has reduced the number of hospitalizations and deaths due to the disease.
We remind you! Ukrainian citizens who have been vaccinated against coronavirus abroad will be able to generate a COVID certificate in the Diia app. We will tell you how to do it here.
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