WHO: COVID will continue to mutate and remain with us

COVID-19 vaccination programs currently protect people from more serious disease but do not ensure herd immunity, WHO Director Hans Kluge said, Report informs, citing foreign media.

"I think it brings us to the point that the aim of a vaccination is first and foremost to prevent more serious disease, and that's mortality," he said.

In May, the WHO director had said, "the pandemic will be over once we reach 70 percent minimum coverage in vaccination".

Asked by AFP if that figure was still a target or whether more people would need to be vaccinated, Dr. Kluge acknowledged that the situation had changed due to new, more transmissible variants, such as Delta.

"If we consider that Covid will continue to mutate and remain with us, the way influenza is, then we should anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy to endemic transmission and gather really precious knowledge about the impact of additional jabs," he added.

Epidemiologists now suggest that it is unrealistic that herd immunity can be reached solely with the use of vaccines, though they remain crucial to contain the pandemic.