Scientists are optimistic that the Omicron variant could be a sign that the virus is losing its power, despite high infection rates.
"2022 should be the end of the Covid-19 pandemic," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a recent conference.
Tedros said he believed the pandemic would end next year because, two years after the situation, "we know the virus very well and have all the means [to fight it]."
Some health officials have predicted that Covid-19 could end up as the flu, which requires a new vaccine each year. Other experts are of the opinion that the virus will evolve on its own and become softer, more transmissible to the point where it will only have to think about vaccinating the most vulnerable members of the population.
Tedros added that WHO forecasts show that vaccine supplies should be sufficient to vaccinate the entire global adult population and deliver booster doses to high-risk populations by the first quarter of 2022.
