Nevertheless, the organization's director general warns that people should not be complacent as more than 500 varieties of Omicron are now circulating, Le Parisien reports.
"WHO estimates that at least 90% of the world's population is now immune to SARS-CoV-2 in some form, either as a result of previous infection or vaccination," Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus told a news conference.
The WHO chief cautioned against premature claims that the initial phase of the pandemic is over. "We haven't gotten to that point yet," he stressed. "Gaps in surveillance, testing, sequencing and vaccination continue to create ideal conditions for the emergence of an alarming new variant that could cause significant deaths," he warned.
More than 8,500 deaths from Covid-19 were reported last week. According to Tedros, more than 500 Omicron sub-variants are now circulating, all highly contagious and have mutations that make them more capable of crossing immune barriers, although they cause less severe forms of the disease than previous variants.