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President Joe Biden declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is "over" during an interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday (September 18) night.
"The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it. It's -- but the pandemic is over," Biden told Scott Pelley.
Despite Biden's statement, the U.S. still considers COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency as roughly 500 Americans have died each day over the past two weeks. During that same time period, there have been an average of 65,000 new cases reported every day, according to John Hopkins University.
Not everybody is ready to declare the pandemic over. Last week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said that the end of the pandemic was "in sight."
"Last week, the number of weekly reported deaths from COVID-19 was the lowest since March 2020," Ghebreyesus said. "We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We're not there yet, but the end is in sight."