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Covid is no longer a global emergency, according to leaders at the World Health Organization (WHO) — a symbolic moment the pandemic is near its end. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the UN health agency, said Friday: 'It's with great hope that I declare COVID over as a global health emergency.'

However, he stopped short of declaring the pandemic over, warning that the virus still posed a threat in developing countries that have not had access to vaccines.

It comes as the final pandemic restrictions in the US are set to end Thursday months after President Joe Biden declared the pandemic 'over' for America.

The pandemic, which triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended the global economy, and killed at least 7million people across the world.