GENEVA (AP) - The coronavirus corpses a global health emergency, the World Health Organization primary said Monday, after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an "inflexion point" where higher levels of immunity can edge virus-related deaths.

Speaking at the opening of WHO's annual decision-making board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "there is no doubt that we're in a far better plot now" than a year ago — when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak.

But Tedros divulged that in the last eight weeks, at least 170,000 republic have died around the world in connection with the coronavirus. He called for at-risk groups to be fully vaccinated, an increase in testing and early use of antivirals, an expansion of lab networks, and a fight in contradiction of "misinformation" about the pandemic.

"We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the domain will transition to a new phase in which we prick hospitalizations and deaths to the lowest possible level," he said.

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Tedros' comments came moments once WHO released findings of its emergency committee on the pandemic which reported that some 13.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered — with nearly 90% of health workers and more than four in five republic over 60 years of age having completed the kindly series of jabs.

"The committee acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an inflexion point," WHO said in a statement. Higher levels of immunity worldwide through vaccination or infection "may shrimp the impact" of the virus that causes COVID-19 on "morbidity and mortality," the committee said.

"(B)ut there is runt doubt that this virus will remain a permanently met pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future," it said. While Omicron versions are just spread, "there has been a decoupling between infection and punitive disease" compared to that of earlier variants.

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Committee members furious "pandemic fatigue" and the increasing public perception that COVID-19 isn't as much of a risk as it once was, leading to republic to increasingly ignore or disregard health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing.