Geneva, Switzerland

Since the discovery of the Omicron variant in the Covid-19 virus, half a million deaths have been reported, according to the World Health Organization calling the toll "beyond tragic".

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As of late November, 130 million cases and 500,000 deaths had been reported worldwide since Omicron was declared a variant of concern by the WHO.

Due to its more transmissible nature, it has quickly overtaken Delta as the world's dominant Covid variant, despite less severe symptoms.

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"In the age of effective vaccines, half a million people dying, it's really something," Mahamud told a live interaction on the WHO's social media channels.

"While everyone was saying Omicron is milder, (they) missed the point that half a million people have died since this was detected," he said.

The sheer number of Omicron cases known to date is staggering, but the actual number is likely to be much higher, according to WHO representative Maria Van Kerkhove.

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"It makes the previous peaks look almost flat," she said.

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"We're still in the middle of this pandemic," she said. "Many countries have not passed their peak of Omicron yet."

Van Kerkhove said she was extremely concerned about the increase in death rate for several weeks in a row.

"This virus continues to be dangerous," she said.

The WHO said in its weekly COVID-19 epidemiological update published later Tuesday that nearly 68,000 new deaths were reported last week, an increase of seven per cent over the previous week. In the meantime, the number of new weekly Covid cases decreased by 17 per cent to nearly 19.3 million.

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The pandemic is currently "characterised by the continued rapid global spread of the Omicron variant," the report said, with the variant now detected "in almost all countries".

Over 96.7 per cent of the samples sequenced and uploaded to GISAID global science initiative came from Omicron in the past 30 days. Delta represents just 3.3 per cent.

Limited information is available regarding the efficacy of vaccines against Omicron, according to the report.

"However, available estimates show reduced protection of the primary series COVID-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant for all outcomes (severe disease, symptomatic disease, and infection) than has been observed previously for other variants of concern," it said.

However, it added that booster shots "substantially" improve efficacy.

Since COVID-19 emerged in China in December 2019, over 5.7 million people have died, while over 392 million cases have been reported.

(With inputs from agencies)