January 19, 2021: The World Health Organization has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday from the UN agency's headquarters in Geneva, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “This pandemic is nowhere near over."
He also warned against considering Omicron as mild, as the dominant Covid strain continues to flare new outbreaks from Latin America to East Asia after it was first detected in southern Africa in November.
"Omicron may be less severe, on average, but the narrative that it is a mild disease is misleading," he said.
Europe is at the epicentre of alarming new outbreaks, with Germany's cases soaring past 100,000 and France reporting nearly half a million cases on Tuesday.
India reported 2,82,970 new COVID cases (up from 2,38,018 a day prior) and 441 deaths in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate has jumped to 15.31% from 14.43% a day prior.