The head of the World Health Organization says he is optimistic the COVID-19 pandemic could come to an end in 2022 if global vaccination rates increase and countries work together to contain the spread.

Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a statement Friday the world has all the tools and resources to end what he called a “calamity.”

He said if the right choices are made, we can turn the pandemic around.

But the WHO chief also warned that nationalism and vaccine hoarding by some countries has undermined equality and created the ideal conditions for the emergence of the omicron variant, and the longer inequality continues, the higher the risk of the virus evolving in ways that can't be prevented or predicted. 

He asserted that inequality has “powered” the pandemic and if we end inequity, we end the pandemic, citing vaccinating 70 percent of the world by mid-2022 as one goal for the new year. 

According to data tracker Worldometer, confirmed global cases have surpassed 288 million, while nearly five and a half million people have died.