World Health Organization officials have said COVID is no longer a global health emergency.

“It’s with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “That does not mean COVID-19 is over as a global health threat.”

In May last year, WHO experts said the end of the pandemic was “in sight”, publishing policy briefs for governments to follow on infection control, testing, vaccination and misinformation.

Last month the NHS COVID app was switched off and will be discontinued completely on 16 May.

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020, triggering lockdowns and travel restrictions across the world.

There have been more than six million COVID-related deaths worldwide since then.