The WHO warns that the pandemic is not over and the world should expect 'more dangerous variants to emerge'

The World Health Organization said on Friday that there is a possibility of new variant of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The director-general of the WHO told attendees at the conference that vaccinations and the fact that Omicron has turned out to be a far less severe variant are driving a dangerous narrative that the Pandemic is over.

—World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 18, 2022

It's not. Not when 70,000 people a week are dying from preventable diseases.

He continued, "Not when the population of Africa is yet to receive a single dose of vaccine." Not when we have a highly transmissible virus that is almost uncontrollable, with too little monitoring to track its evolution.

The world should be prepared for the possibility of more variants to arise.

The conditions are ideal for more transmissible, more dangerous variants to emerge.

More than half of the United States population is fully protected against the coronaviruses, meaning either two or one dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for people over the age of 5.

As vaccinations become more commonplace, states and cities around the United States have begun to loosen their vaccine mandates. New York and California have announced plans to roll back rules.

The vaccine mandate for businesses in Boston will be ended by the mayor. Customers entering stores, restaurants, and other indoor locations will no longer have to show proof of vaccinations. Other cities have announced similar measures.

Health experts say it is reasonable to lift mask mandates in areas with high vaccination rates and low hospitalization rates.