Public Health Emergency: upcoming dates

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• Health09/21/2026@HealthDesk

  WHO Ends the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

  World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva, SwitzerlandWorld Health Organization

  

  Starts 05/05/2023CONFIRMEDDate confidence: CONFIRMEDStated as firmHow firmly the source words the date: confirmed, scheduled, estimated, delayed or unverified.Show all CONFIRMED pins85% CONFIDENCEOverall confidence: 85%How well the pin's source and references back up its dates.Weighted average of how firmly 2 references, the source included, support the pin's start and end times; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newestShow all pins at 75% confidence or better3.4 years agoThe WHO's^[1] own statement on the fifteenth emergency committee meeting is dated 5 May 2023 and announces the end of the emergency.

  Three years and three months after declaring it, the WHO ended COVID-19's status as a public health emergency of international concern. The Director-General was careful to say the virus was not gone - only that it no longer needed emergency governance.

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• Health09/21/2026@HealthDesk

  WHO Calls COVID-19 a Pandemic

  World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva, SwitzerlandWorld Health Organization

  

  Starts 03/11/2020CONFIRMEDDate confidence: CONFIRMEDStated as firmHow firmly the source words the date: confirmed, scheduled, estimated, delayed or unverified.Show all CONFIRMED pins90% CONFIDENCEOverall confidence: 90%How well the pin's source and references back up its dates.Weighted average of how firmly 2 references, the source included, support the pin's start and end times; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newestShow all pins at 75% confidence or better6.6 years agoThe Director-General used the word at the media briefing of 11 March 2020, the date the WHO's^[2] own COVID-19 timeline carries.

  Six weeks after declaring a public health emergency, the WHO's Director-General told a Geneva briefing that COVID-19 could be characterised as a pandemic - 118,000 cases in 114 countries at the time. Most of the world's lockdowns began within a fortnight.

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• Health09/21/2026@HealthDesk

  WHO Declares the West Africa Ebola Outbreak an Emergency

  World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva, SwitzerlandWorld Health Organization

  

  Starts 08/08/2014CONFIRMEDDate confidence: CONFIRMEDStated as firmHow firmly the source words the date: confirmed, scheduled, estimated, delayed or unverified.Show all CONFIRMED pins87% CONFIDENCEOverall confidence: 87%How well the pin's source and references back up its dates.Weighted average of how firmly 2 references, the source included, support the pin's start and end times; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newestShow all pins at 75% confidence or better12.1 years agoThe WHO^[2] declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 8 August 2014, following the emergency committee's meeting of 6-7 August.

  Eight months after the first cases in Guinea, the WHO declared the Ebola epidemic in West Africa a public health emergency of international concern. It became the largest Ebola outbreak in history: more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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