A senior World Health Organization official warned states that they thought they had gone through the worst of Covid-19 after the infection rate dropped after the Omicron variant.
Maria van Kerkhove, speaking to Sophie Raworth on BBC One, said: "You may be out of the latest wave of Omicron. In many countries like the UK, which has a high level of immunity of the population from infection and the spread of "Vaccines, you will see an ongoing change. You are in another phase of the pandemic."
"[However] out of the 10 billion doses of vaccine that have been administered to date, there are still 3 billion people waiting for the first dose. We still have a very sensitive population, even if there are some states that have taken steps forward, the rest of the world does not. "It's a global issue, we need to address it with a global solution."
She added: "[The pandemic] will not end with this latest wave of Omicron and it is not the last variant you will hear about."
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