GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — COVID-19 still kills around 1,700 people worldwide each week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday, urging at-risk people to continue getting vaccinated.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned about the falling vaccination rates.
Even as deaths continue to rise, “the data shows that vaccination rates are declining among the two groups most at risk: health workers and people over 60 years old,” the head of the U.N. health agency said at a news conference.
“WHO recommends that people in the highest-risk groups receive a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of their last dose.”
More than seven million COVID-19 deaths have been reported to the WHO, but the true toll from the pandemic is thought to be much higher.
COVID-19 has devastated economies and crippled health systems.
Director-General Tedros declared the end of COVID-19 as a global 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 continue surveillance and genetic sequencing of the virus, and to ensure access to affordable and reliable tests, treatments and vaccines.
