Nearly 10,000 COVID deaths reported last month as JN.1 variant spread at holiday gatherings, WHO says

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is pointing to holiday gatherings and a rapidly spreading variant as reasons behind a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths worldwide, with nearly 10,000 COVID deaths reported last month.

"Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable," the head of the U.N. health agency told reporters Wednesday from its headquarters in Geneva.

WHO says the JN.1 variant is now the most prominent in the world. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated late last month that the variant makes up about 44.1% of COVID cases across the country.