COVID-19 pandemic to be 'far more deadly' this year: World health experts warn

World health experts on Friday issued a grim warning that the second year of COVID-19 was set to be 'far more deadly'. This warning comes at a time when 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, according to an AFP tally of official data.

Meanwhile, things look grim in Japan where the COVID-19 state of emergency took in another three regions just 10 weeks before the Olympics, even as campaigners submitted a petition with more than 350,000 signatures calling for the Games to be cancelled.

With Tokyo and other areas already under emergency orders until the end of May, Hiroshima, Okayama, and northern Hokkaido, which will host the Olympic marathon, will now join them.

The move to combat a fourth wave putting Japan's medical system under strain comes with public opinion firmly opposed to holding the Games this summer.

In Taiwan entertainment venues, libraries and sports centres have been closed down indefinitely in the capital city, in the wake of an outbreak of infections first detected among pilots.

The island has been a global leader in containing the pandemic, with just 1,290 confirmed cases and 12 deaths.

(With Agency Inputs)