The WHO estimates that 90% of the world population enjoys some immunity to Covid-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated on Friday that 90% of the world’s population currently enjoys some immunity to Covid-19, although it warned of the threat of a new variant.

“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,” said WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusreferring 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 have not reached it yet,” he added at a press conference.

Tedros warned that the reduction in contagion surveillance is opening the door to a new variant of the virus, which can overcome the dominant Omicron.

“Gaps in surveillance, testing, sequencing and vaccination continue to create the perfect conditions for a worrisome new variant to emerge that could cause significant mortality,” he warned.

Tedros recalled that last weekend it was one year since the WHO reported a new, more contagious variant, that of omicron.

There are currently more than 500 subvariants of Omicron and all are highly transmissible. They also have mutations that allow them to more easily escape immunity, Tedros recalled.

Countries have reported 6.6 million deaths from Covid-19 to WHO. Almost 640 million infections have also been registered.

The UN health agency insists that the data does not reflect the true number of victims.

Last week there were more than 8,500 deaths from covid-19, Tedros recalled. A figure that “is not acceptable” after three years of the pandemic, when “we already have so many tools to prevent infections and save lives.”