Despite significant progress in the fight against Covid-19, the virus continues to pose profound implications for health, economic progress and people’s livelihoods across the globe.

“We are concerned about the current Covid-19 epidemiological picture, with both an intense transmission in several parts of the world and a recombinant sub-variant spreading quickly.” World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual media briefing from Geneva, Switzerland on Jan 4.