PARIS, France (AFP) — Five years since Covid-19 started upending the world, the virus is still infecting and killing people across the globe — though at far lower levels than at the height of the pandemic.

Around 777 million Covid cases and more than seven million deaths have been officially recorded since the first infections emerged in December 2019, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

World Health Organization (WHO). However, the true toll is believed to be far higher.

The pandemic also crippled health systems, crashed economies and sent the populations of many countries into lockdown.

In the second half of 2022, infection and death rates tumbled due to growing immunity from vaccinations or prior infection. The virus also mutated to become less severe.

In May 2023, the WHO declared the emergency phase of the pandemic was over.

Since then, the virus seems to have gradually become endemic, according to experts, with occasional resurgences similar to the flu — although less seasonal.

It has also largely receded from the public eye.

“The world wants to forget this pathogen that is still with us, and I think people want to put Covid in the past as if it’s over — and in many respects pretend it didn’t happen — because it has been so traumatic,” WHO pandemic preparedness director Maria Van Kerkhove said last month.

From October to November last year, there were more than 3,000 deaths from Covid across 27 countries, according to the WHO.

More than 95 percent of official Covid deaths were recorded between 2020 and 2022.

Variants

Since the Omicron variant emerged in November 2021, a succession of its subvariants have been replacing each other as the dominant strain around the world.

At the moment, the Omicron variant KP.3.1.1 is the most common.

The rising XEC is the only “variant under monitoring” by the WHO, though the United Nations agency rates its global health risk as low.

None of the successive Omicron subvariants have been noticeably more severe than others, although some experts warn it is not out of the question that future strains could be more transmissible or deadly.

Vaccines were developed against Covid in record time and they proved a powerful weapon against the virus, with more than 13.6 billion doses administered worldwide so far

However, rich countries bought up a large portion of the early doses, creating unequal distribution across the world.

Booster shots updated for the JN.1 Omicron subvariant are still recommended in some nations, particularly for at-risk groups such as the elderly.