The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, according to World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"We are not there yet, but the end is in sight," said Tedros in his most optimistic assessment of the global crisis to date.
Countries have reported more than 611 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 6.5 million related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
According to the WHO's latest update, there were 3.1 million new infections reported globally between September 5 and September 11, down 28% from the previous week, and continuing a declining trend across all regions.
Meanwhile, weekly reported deaths from COVID-19 dropped 22% to just over 11 000--"the lowest since March 2020," Tedros said.
"Now is the time to run harder ..."
"We can see the finish line, we are in a winning position, but now is the worst time to stop running," Tedros said. "Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work."
The WHO expects more waves of infections driven by new variants and warned that declines in testing and surveillance mean...