A pedestrian wearing a protective face mask walks past a street-art mural by French street artist JBC, in tribute to health workers depicting a nurse wearing a protective face mask in reference to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on March 24, 2021 in Paris, France.
Chesnot | Getty Images
Nearly two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, reported daily infections are rising again as the omicron variant spreads rapidly around the world, in countries ranging from the U.S. and the U.K. to South Africa and Australia.
The World Health Organization labeled omicron a variant of concern. While much remains unknown about it, the WHO warned that the variant is spreading “significantly faster” than the delta strain and could change the course of the pandemic.
Still, “2022 must be the end of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said Wednesday.
Data on the pandemic — such as confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths — likely underestimates the actual situation owing to limited testing, frequency of reporting and quality of data collected.
But based on…
