(Reuters)

The more infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but it should not be categorised as “mild”, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Speaking at a media briefing, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also repeated his call for greater global equity in the distribution of and access to coronavirus vaccines.

He warned that based on the current rate of vaccine rollout, 109 countries will miss the WHO’s target for 70 per cent of the world’s population to be fully vaccinated by July. That aim is seen as helping end the acute phase of the pandemic.