The World Health Organization on Friday said that the high coverage of Covid-19 vaccines in some countries, combined with the lower severity of the Omicron variant, is driving a “dangerous narrative” that the pandemic is over.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that present conditions in the pandemic were in fact ideal for more transmissible and dangerous variants of coronavirus to emerge.

Ghebreyesus made the remarks during the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Globally, the coronavirus has so far infected 42.16 crore people and caused 58.73 lakh deaths since the pandemic began in January 2020, according to the data provided by the John Hopkins University.

During Friday’s session at the conference, the WHO director said that the world must focus on ending the pandemic this year.

“We have the tools. We have the know-how,” he said. “...Ending this pandemic must remain our focus. At the same time, we must learn the lessons it is teaching us.”

In his address, the WHO chief said that the Covid-19 pandemic cannot end when “70,000 people are dying each week” or when “83% of the African population remains unvaccinated”.

“Not when health systems continue to strain and crack under the caseload. Not when we have a highly transmissible virus circulating almost unchecked, with too little surveillance to track its evolution,” he said.

He further added that strong governance was needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic. “Instead of the confusion and incoherence that has fuelled this pandemic, we need cooperation and collaboration.”