WHO says Covid-19 could turn to flu-like threat this year

The World Health Organization said Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic might settle down to a point where it poses a similar threat to the flu this year.

It said it was optimistic about the end of the pandemic phase of the virus by 2023 and that it would be able to declare an end to the emergency by then.

Three years have passed since the UN health agency called the situation a pandemic - although WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says countries should have taken action months ago.

"I think we're coming to that point where we can look at Covid-19 in the same way we look at seasonal influenza," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

"A threat to health, a virus that will continue to kill. But a virus that is not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital systems, and I believe that that will come, as Tedros said, this year," he added.

Globally, the world is much better off now than it has been during the pandemic, the WHO chief said.