The leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed on Monday that 2022 must be the year in which "the pandemic comes to an end.

To this end, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for prudence in parties during a press conference at the UN in Geneva (Switzerland) and recommended families and people who intend to be together during the holidays to think twice: "a cancelled event is better than living less."

"We are all fed up with this pandemic. We all want to be with our families, but to better protect them and to protect ourselves, in some cases, that means canceling an event," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, quoted by Lusa.

To this end, the official assured that the WHO is committed to doing everything in its power to end the pandemic next year.

Once again, the WHO director-general called for better access to vaccines in disadvantaged countries.

"If we want to end the pandemic next year, we must end inequality by ensuring that 70% of each country's population is vaccinated by mid-year," he said.

Tedros reiterated that the WHO is not opposed to booster shots, but stressed that they should be reserved for people at risk or over the age of 65.

The WHO director felt that countries that give booster doses to perfectly healthy adults or children would do better to share these vaccines or convince unvaccinated people to join.

"We are faced with a very harsh reality, but we must be supportive," he insisted.