Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO's Europe director, warned 'Covid will continue to mutate and remain with us, the way influenza is'
Covid jabs will not end the pandemic and leaders should prepare to adjust their vaccine strategy to deal with the virus in the long-term, the World Health Organization's director for Europe has warned.
Dr Hans Kluge said new strains of Covid will continue to emerge and the virus will remain with us like the flu.
Earlier this year, he said the pandemic would be over once 70 per cent of people were fully immunised.
But he admitted today that the situation had now changed, so leaders need to adapt their vaccination strategy.
Up to 80 per cent of people in wealthy countries are double-jabbed, but less than 0.1 per cent have received a vaccine in poorer countries.
Some experts initially thought that once enough people were vaccinated, the virus would be unable to spread.
But while the jabs are highly effective at preventing hospitalisations and deaths, they are less effective at stopping transmission, leading officials to warn that the world must learn to live with the virus.
In wealthier countries, including Portugal, Singapore and Denmark,more than 70 per cent of the entire population has been double-jabbed. But in poorer countries, such as Tanzania, Haiti and Chad as little as 0.1 per cent have received both doses, according to Our World in Data
Scientists from Imperial College London estimate that the three Covid jabs dished out in the UK reduce transmission by 40 per cent, while Warwick University calculated the figure to be 45 per cent. This means of 100 unvaccinated people who would pass on the virus, just 60 to 55 of them would pass it on if they were double-jabbed
In May, Dr Kluge said: 'The pandemic will be over once we reach 70 per cent minimum coverage in vaccination.'
But asked today whether this number was still the target, or if more people needed to be vaccinated to end the pandemic, Dr
