India, Jan. 13 -- The public health risk from COVID-19 remains high, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday.

The virus is still circulating globally but relatively few countries are following infections closely, meaning the actual threat due to the coronavirus and its variants could be anything from two to 19 times higher than what is being reported to WHO.

The agency's COVID focal point, Dr Maria Van Kerhove, told journalists in Geneva that data from just 50 countries indicates there are still 10,000 deaths per month due to the virus.

"On the positive side, the numbers of deaths have reduced drastically since its peak a couple of years ago", the senior official said.

She said it was clear that other deaths were simpl...