Australian PM tests positive for Covid-19

CANBERRA [AUSTRALIA]: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19.

Taking to social media, he tweeted that he will be isolating himself and will continue to work from home.

"This afternoon I had a routine PCR test which has returned a positive result for Covid-19. I will be isolating and will continue to work from home," the Australian Prime Minister tweeted. "I encourage anyone who is unwell to test and to take any extra precautions to keep their families and neighbours well," he added.

This comes as WHO estimates that at least 90 per cent of the world's population now has some level of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, due to prior infection or vaccination.

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said the number of weekly deaths reported to WHO has declined slightly over the past five weeks, but more than 8,500 people lost their lives last week.

According to the WHO chief, the world is much closer to being able to say that the emergency phase of the pandemic is over - but we're not there yet.

"Gaps in surveillance, testing, sequencing and vaccination are continuing to create the perfect conditions for a new variant of concern to emerge that could cause significant mortality," he said.

Tedros urged all countries to take a risk-based approach that protects both public health and human rights.