The World Health Organization estimates that 90% of the world's population now has some resistance to Covid-19, but warned that a worrying new variant could emerge.
The lack of vigilance has created the possibility for a new variant of the virus to emerge, which could overtake the dominant Omicron, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
"WHO estimates that at least 90% of the world's population now has some level of immunity to Sars-CoV-2, due to previous infection or vaccination," Tedros said, referring to the virus that causes the disease Covid-19. "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 told reporters.
"Gaps in surveillance, testing and vaccination are continuing to create the perfect conditions for a worrisome new variant to emerge that could cause significant mortality."
Tedros said there are now more than 500 highly transmissible subtypes of Omicron in circulation. Worldwide, 6.6 million deaths from Covid have been reported to the WHO, out of nearly 640 million recorded cases.
He said more than 8,500 people lost their lives to Covid last week, "which is not acceptable three years after the pandemic, when we have so many tools to prevent infections and save lives".
