Fresh waves of Covid infections show the pandemic is "nowhere near over", the World Health Organization's chief warned, voicing concern the virus is "running freely".

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was worried that case numbers were continuing to rise, putting further pressure on stretched health systems and workers. "New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over," he told a news conference, adding: "As the virus pushes at us, we must push back." "The virus is running freely and countries are not efectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalisation for acute cases and the expanding number of people with post-Covid condition, ofen referred to as Long Covid," he said.