WHO warns it's hard to track new Covid variants

As governments roll back testing, the World Health Organization WHO warns that it's hard to identify and track new Covid variants.

The U.S. federal government suspended free at-home COVID 19 tests because of lack of funding.

As medical countermeasures and other tools roll out, the warning comes from Norway and South Africa.

The global pandemic is not over, and coordinated action, funding, and political commitments are still needed, according to WHO.

Many countries are not meeting the global targets on vaccination coverage, testing rates and access to treatments and PPE as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, according to WHO.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on Covid 19 said the virus is still circulating at an incredibly intense level worldwide, according to CNBC. Van Kerkhove said that the WHO is concerned that it is evolving at a time when there is no longer robust testing in place to help identify new variants.

Van Kerkhove said that the WHO is currently tracking about 200 omicron sublineages.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly UNGA in New York, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that we have spent two and a half years in a dark tunnel and we are just beginning to see the light at the end of that tunnel. According to reports, the White House plans to ask $22.4 billion for Covid 19 vaccines.