A mammoth vaccination drive: Looking back at the COVID-19 pandemic Premium

End of COVID-19 pandemic: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declares the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting global vaccination efforts and future pandemic preparedness.

On May 5, 2023, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), officially declared that the global COVID-19 pandemic was no longer an emergency.

Earlier that year, in January 2023, WHO still maintained that the COVID-19 pandemic remained a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), three years to the day after it sounded the highest level of global alert. In September 2022, Dr. Tedros said that the “end is in sight” for the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the world was on its guard again at the beginning of 2023, with new waves breaking out in China after it lifted restrictions in December 2022.

Also Read: The pandemic — looking back, looking forward

Vaccination had widely been considered the mode to bring an end to the pandemic, and the COVID-19 era witnessed a global mobilisation effort. The UNICEF COVID-19 market dashboard noted that 17.2 billion doses had been secured globally. Of these, 13.64 billion had been administered across the world, according to the WHO-UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccination information hub.

The fear about COVID-19 has, by and large subsided, although it remains extant in pockets across the world. The global vaccination drive, however, is at an end. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that more adults in America reported getting the updated flu shot than the updated COVID-19 shot after both vaccines became available in August last year.

Here is a throwback to the historic effort to vaccinate the world’s public, amid loss, fear, skepticism and anti-vaccination sentiment.

As of March 13, 2023, the global rate for vaccination stood at 72.3% vaccinated (at least one dose) and 67% fully vaccinated, according to a coronavirus tracker run by TheNew York Times. This was the last update since many countries stopped regularly reporting vaccine data post this period.