On Saturday, May 6, 2023, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, officially declared the end of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) as a public emergency.

However, it is not yet Uhuru, as the disease still claimed a life every three minutes as of last week. This comes to 480 per day worldwide, compared to where we were back two years ago at the height of the scourge. On June 10, 2021, India alone set an unenviable world record of 6,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day! According to the WHO’s Coronavirus Dashboard, the world today had cumulative cases of 765,222,932 with 6,921,614 deaths since January 30, 2020 when the WHO declared it a worldwide pandemic.

At its worst, Coronavirus was no respecter of advanced healthcare systems. Ironically, the United States of America, the UK, the European Union countries, India and Brazil, which represent countries with the best healthcare systems recorded the highest number of cases and fatalities. Ironically (and happily for us), sub-Saharan Africa, which was predicted to harvest deaths on the streets ended up the least affected, with Nigeria recording 3,155 deaths during the over three-year scourge.

The disease had profound impacts on economies and lifestyles. Governments submitted their authorities to the WHO and implemented painful lockdowns, travel restrictions, closure of businesses, suspension of industrial and trading activities and the administration of palliatives to citizens. Healthcare workers all over the world slaved to save lives, and many gallantly paid the supreme price.

The economic downturns and fractured trade and agricultural productions linked to the pandemic are yet to be repaired. Research institutions and big pharma rushed to produce vaccines which till today are still shrouded in controversy as to whether they helped or worsened the situation. Though they obviously saved a lot of lives, there are subsisting conspiracy theories that some of the vaccines are still causing deaths and permanent disabilities among those who took them.

Every bad situation has a way of producing some positive outcomes. For instance, the lockdowns, according to environmental specialists and scientists, gave the earth some breathing space to recover from its choking condition due to its greenhouse overload. Some now suggest that the world should agree to planned periodic worldwide lockdowns to benefit our planet for our own ultimate good.

For us in Nigeria, the pandemic also left behind some positive impacts. Though we sadly lost a number of our valued citizens, it forced us to wake up from our slumber. We now have many laboratories and epidemic test centres (both private and government-owned). We are definitely better prepared for the inevitable next pandemic which, some predict, may come as early as 2025. We hope the lifestyle changes and lessons we learned from COVID-19 will endure. Let us remain vigilant.