WHO keeps covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern

On 30 January 2023 the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced his decision that covid-19 remains a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), 1 three years after the emergency was first declared.2 In doing so, Tedros acknowledged the advice of the covid-19 emergency committee that "the covid-19 pandemic is probably at a transition point."There is considerable speculation about when the PHEIC will be terminated.3 PHEICs are determined by the director general under the International Health Regulations, 4 the legal framework governing international disease spread.PHEICs are events that are deemed to be extraordinary, constitute a public health risk to other states through international spread of disease, and potentially require a coordinated international response.4 The subjectivity of the decision making is inescapable.