WHO: Second year of Covid-19 will Be ’Far Deadlier’ Than First

By Staff, Agencies 

World health experts issued a grim warning Friday that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly", as Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped.

"We're on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first," said the World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The pandemic has killed at least 3,346,813 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019.

India meanwhile started deploying Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the first foreign-made shot to be used in the country that has been reeling from an explosion in cases and deaths.

India has been adding roughly as many new Covid cases daily as the rest of the world put together.

More than 260,000 Indians have died, according to official figures.

Meanwhile in the US, the top health agency on Thursday said it was lifting mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, following the apparent successes of an ongoing vaccination campaign.