The worst of the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of deaths and hospitalisations for many countries, including Ireland, is past, but caution is still needed around variants, WHO director Dr Mike Ryan has said.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme said many countries have done "a good job" in getting their vulnerable populations vaccinated.
"So from that perspective, the worst of the health impacts of the pandemic are probably coming to an end in countries like Ireland," he said. "But that is not the case in many, many other countries around the world."
Dr Ryan said the gains Ireland has made can be lost, and caution must be taken around variants.
If the virus continues to evolve, he said, there is "every chance" it could evolve into something that vaccines no longer protect against.
He said there is no question that the variants, particularly Delta, are "much more transmissible", and no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing transmission.
"The danger at the moment with the Delta variant is if transmission increases", he said.
"And it is increasing in Ireland. I think the reproductive number is 1.2, so you are generating more cases than you would like in Ireland. There are still many susceptible people."
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Dr Ryan said some countries are experiencing "terrible surges" currently.
He said the "goal of all of our measures" in some sense is to get to a point where society can open up again, and while vaccines offer a fast track to that outcome, they do not stop transmission, and reopening must be done carefully and slowly.
He said Ireland has done "a very good job a few times" and has "really cracked the curve" but it is hard to sustain that.
"Right now vaccination coverage in Ireland is good but it's not perfect," he said. "The Delta strain will bring more transmission and there are still vulnerable people. What you don't want to do is ignite another wave of cases, but at the same time, society needs to open up."
Dr Ryan said Ireland needs to look forward to schools and education settings reopening in September.
"It's just making sure that that plan is measured against what the virus is doing," he said.
"Not against a slavish plan to some timetable. That would be my concern. The plan should be mediated by what's actually happening in the community ... not by some calendar drawn up for reopening."
Dr Ryan said health experts do not understand the Delta strain completely and do not know where it is going, and they "just need to be that little bit cautious and careful", adding that there has been an increase of more than 33% in virus circulation in Europe in the last week alone.
"The virus is still there", he said. "It will cause problems. We just need to try and make sure that we avoid the worst of those problems and that we open up extremely carefully so we don't have to go backwards."
Dr Ryan said that while it would be prudent for Ireland to look at the policy for vaccinating children, consideration should also be given to sharing vaccines globally.
He said achieving high levels of vaccination across the population is a good long-term strategy, but the question now is what the best short-term strategy is.
"I think Ireland is a country that demonstrates it can do both," he said. "Ireland is a country that can extend its vaccination to include more and more age groups, but I think Ireland can also lead the way - in Europe and the world - in sharing and driving the process where we can share vaccines with everyone."
Dr Ryan said Ireland has always been "a leader in humanitarianism" and he hopes that the Irish Government and other European governments "really make a commitment" to sharing vaccine doses.
In relation to the EU Digital Covid Certificate, Dr Ryan said it is great within the bubble of the European Union, but outside that bubble there are "huge problems" with inequity and vaccine distribution.
He said that he himself is "desperate" to travel to see his family, but the rules should be respected.
