GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide.

WHO said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn’t come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The U.N. health agency says that thousands of people are still dying from the virus every week.

“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.”

When the U.N. health agency first declared the coronavirus to be an international crisis on Jan. 30, 2020, it hadn’t yet been named COVID-19 and there were no major outbreaks beyond China.

More than three years later, the virus has caused an estimated 764 million cases globally and about 5 billion people have received at least one dose of vaccine.

In the U.S., the public health emergency declaration made regarding COVID-19 is set to expire on May 11, when wide-ranging measures to support the pandemic response, including vaccine mandates, will end. Many other countries, including Germany, France and Britain, dropped many of their provisions against the pandemic last year.

When Tedros declared COVID-19 to be an emergency in 2020, he said his greatest fear was the virus’ potential to spread in countries with weak health systems he described as “ill-prepared.”

In fact, some of the countries that suffered the worst COVID-19 death tolls were previously judged to be the best-prepared for a pandemic, including the U.S. and Britain. According to WHO data, the number of deaths reported in Africa account for just 3% of the global total.

WHO made its decision to lower its highest level of alert on Friday, after convening an expert group on Thursday. The U.N. agency doesn’t “declare” pandemics, but first used the term to describe the outbreak in March 2020, when the virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica, long after many other scientists had said a pandemic was already underway.

WHO is the only agency mandated to coordinate the world’s response to acute health threats, but the organization faltered repeatedly as the coronavirus unfolded. In January 2020, WHO publicly applauded China for its supposed speedy and transparent response, even though recordings of private meetings obtained by The Associated Press showed top officials were frustrated at the country’s lack of cooperation.

WHO also recommended against members of the public wearing masks to protect against COVID-19 for months, a mistake many health officials say cost lives.

Numerous scientists also slammed WHO’s reluctance to acknowledge that COVID-19 was frequently spread in the air and by people without symptoms, criticizing the agency’s lack of strong guidance to prevent such exposure.

Tedros was a vociferous critic of rich countries who hoarded the limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, warning that the world was on the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure” by failing to share shots with poor countries.

Most recently, WHO has been struggling to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, a challenging scientific endeavour that has also become politically fraught.

After a weeks-long visit to China, WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most likely jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility that it originated in a lab as “extremely unlikely.”

But the U.N. agency backtracked the following year, saying “key pieces of data” were still missing and that it was premature to rule out that COVID-19 might have ties to a lab.

A panel commissioned by WHO to review its performance criticized China and other countries for not moving quicker to stop the virus and said the organization was constrained both by its limited finances and inability to compel countries to act.

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Maria Cheng reported from London.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored twice in a roughly 2 1/2-minute span during Carolina’s four-goal second period, Frederik Andersen stopped 28 shots and the Hurricanes beat the New Jersey Devils 6-1 on Friday night for a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Jordan Staal and Martin Necas also scored in that blow-it-open second, which turned a scoreless game between the top two regular-season teams still alive in the playoffs into a romping Hurricanes win with the backing of another rowdy home crowd.

It also marked the second straight game the Hurricanes chased Devils netminder Akira Schmid. He lasted only a few minutes into the second period of the 5-1 loss in Game 1, then took a seat after the second with his team down 4-0.

Jordan Martinook and Stefan Noesen added clinching goals in the third period to cap another dominant night for Carolina.

Miles Wood scored for the Devils early in the third, but Andersen was strong in his third straight postseason start for Carolina going back to the Round 1 win against the New York Islanders.

The Devils return home to host Game 3 on Sunday, facing an 0-2 hole for the second straight best-of-seven series. They lost the first two games at home by 5-1 scores in the first round against the New York Rangers before rallying to advance with Monday’s Game 7 clincher.

This time, they’ve been outscored 11-2 through two games.

Kotkaniemi’s first goal came when he took pass alone on the right side, then skated in to the dot before firing a shot that went under Schmid’s right arm and grazed his ribs before finding the net at the 1:35 mark.

Moments later, Martinook — whose activity had him in the mix all night — skated in to tangle up two Devils players in a possession chase near the boards. That helped jar the puck loose to skitter over to Kotkaniemi for the near-post putaway at 3:58.

The Hurricanes kept the pressure on. There was Jack Drury chipping the puck in at the blue line for Staal, with the Hurricanes captain extending his 6-foot-4 frame to corral it before going with the forehand-to-backhand finish and the 3-0 lead.

And finally, Martin Necas finished one from the slot after Jaccob Slavin caught the right post on a rush, pushing the margin to 4-0 and only increasing already roaring noise in PNC Arena shortly before the intermission.

The Hurricanes dominated the opening period of Game 1, smothering the Devils to take away open ice while tallying more goals (two) than New Jersey had shots (one).

The Devils knew they couldn’t repeat that effort and said as much Thursday, noting they had to get pucks on the net and use their speed to force Carolina to expend energy defending in its own end instead of rolling with its aggressive forecheck.

New Jersey carried play through the first 10-plus minutes. But by end of this one, Carolina was celebrating a blowout with Martinook’s breakaway score against reliever Vitek Vanecek followed closely by Noesen’s putaway on a perfect 2-on-1 feed from Sebastian Aho.

MEIER BACK

Trade acquisition Timo Meier was back for the Devils after missing Game 1. He was left with a cut nose and bruising under his right eye for this one, four days after taking a crushing hit from New York Rangers forward Jacob Trouba in the Game 7 win to close the first round.

Meier saw 16:49 of ice time in this one and finished with five shots.

SIREN SOUNDERS

Former Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in the team’s run to the 2006 Stanley Cup, sounded the pregame storm-warning siren for the Hurricanes to take the ice.

Charlotte Hornets guard Bryce McGowens and Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Ikem Ekwonu sounded the siren for the following intermissions.

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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap

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AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports