GENEVA: Covid-19 is still killing around 1,700 people a week worldwide, the World Health Organization said on Thursday as it urged at-risk populations to keep up with vaccinations against the disease.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned of declining vaccination coverage.
Despite the continuing death toll, “data show that vaccine coverage has fallen among health workers and people over 60, the two most at-risk groups,” the head of the UN health agency told a news conference.
“The WHO recommends that people in the most at-risk groups receive the Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of the last dose.”
More than seven million covid deaths have been reported to the WHO, although the actual death toll from the pandemic is believed to be much higher.
Covid-19 has also devastated economies and crippled health systems.
Tedros declared the end of Covid-19 as an international public health emergency in May 2023, more than three years after the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China in late 2019.
WHO urged governments to maintain viral surveillance and sequencing and ensure access to affordable and reliable tests, treatments and vaccines.
