The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed his hope that "2022 will be the year of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic."
As the end of the year holidays approached, Ghebreyesus said, "It is better to cancel events now and celebrate later, rather than celebrate now and mourn later," according to Agency France-Presse (AFP).
This comes at a time when the new mutation of the Coronavirus, "Omicron", is sweeping various countries of the world, as many countries are facing a significant increase in the number of daily infections.
"Omicron" appeared around a month ago in South Africa and has spread to various countries in the world, as the number of infections in Britain, for example, reached about 91,000 on Monday.
Commenting on the spread of "Omicron", the Director of the World Health Organization said that "there is no evidence that the mutant spreads faster than the Delta mutant," which spread earlier from Britain.
On the other hand, Pfizer, a US drug-maker, predicted last Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic would continue until 2024 and said that a version of its vaccine in a smaller dose for children between two and four years caused a weaker immune response than expected, which could delay its license to use.
Michael Dolsten, chief scientific officer at Pfizer, said in a statement to investors, that the company expects that some areas will continue to experience pandemic-level infections over the next year or two.
He added that other countries will be endemic with low numbers that can be controlled during that same time.
The company predicted that the disease will be endemic in this way in the world by 2024.
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