Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The fight against COVID-19 will take longer than expected. According to the forecasts of the World Health Organization, (WHO), it will be possible to defeat the pandemic only closer to 2022.

WHO head Tedros Ghebreyesus compared the current situation with the Spanish flu pandemic, which raged a hundred years ago and also lasted for about two years.

“Today we have the technology and knowledge to fight these kinds of diseases. But we live in conditions of globalization, which allows the virus to spread faster across the planet,” said Gebreyesus.

According to the WHO, since the detection of COVID-19, about 23 million people have been infected in the world. Almost 800 thousand patients have died. Europe has seen a new surge in the pandemic in recent weeks. Against the background of the holiday period, an increase in the incidence was noted in Spain, Portugal, Croatia, France - resorts often emerge as new outbreaks due to the influx of tourists and, of course, large cities.

As the WHO noted, even the rapid introduction of the coronavirus vaccine by itself will not lead to an immediate end to the pandemic.