Geneva: Now into the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is in a much better place than it was several years ago, due to clinical care management, vaccines and treatments, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.
"For most of last year, COVID-19 was on the decline," the WHO Chief said in his opening remarks at information session for Member States on Thursday, January 5, 2023.
In 2022, vaccination increased across the world, and there was sustained progress in many lower- and middle-income countries.
Furthermore, new lifesaving antivirals were identified, which helped cut mortality.
"But the threat of COVID-19 persists. Major inequalities in access to testing, treatment and vaccination continue. Every week, approximately ten thousand people die of COVID-19. The true toll is likely much higher," he stated.
"And the current COVID-19 epidemiological picture is troubling. There is intense transmission and pressure on health systems particularly in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and a recombinant sub-variant spreading quickly," he warned.
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