The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared an end to the COVID-19 global public health emergency.

“For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva.

“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19,” Tedros said. “It is therefore with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency.”

Since the emergency was first declared on Jan. 30, 2020, nearly 7 million people have died from the virus worldwide, according to the U.N.

Tedros estimated that the true toll is over 20 million.