France, March 11 -- 11 March marks five years since the World Health Organization declared the spread of Covid-19 a pandemic. The virus caused 7 million deaths, according to the UN body.

Hospitals were quickly overwhelmed, unprecedented lockdowns were introduced around the world andthe globaleconomy suffered its worst crisis in more than a century. In 2023, the maximum alert level was lifted, but while the virus is now far less deadly, it has not disappeared.

Covid-19 monitoring is far less rigorous now, making it difficult to obtain figures that reflect the reality of the reach of the virus today. However, 11,000 cases of Covid-19 in a single week were recently reported to the WHO by around 50 countries, along with 500 deaths per week....