– We are much closer to being able to say that the emergency phase of the pandemic is over – but we are not there yet, he said in a statement on Friday.
He also warned of new mutations of the virus:
— Deficiencies in surveillance, testing, sequencing and vaccination continue to create the perfect conditions for a new variant to emerge that can cause significant mortality.
Last weekend it was a year ago that the covid variant omikron was classified as a “variant of special importance” by the WHO. Today, more than 500 sub-variants of omicron are circulating, according to the WHO director.
He added that despite the increased immunity, 8,500 people lost their lives to covid last week.