The planet is nowhere close to the amount of COVID-19 immunity needed to induce herd immunity, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

"We need to focus on what we can do now to stop transmission and not live in hope of herd immunity being our salvation," warned Michael Ryan, WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director, at a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

Herd immunity can be achieved by vaccination and natural infection. The more contagious a disease is, the greater the proportion of the population that needs to be immune to the disease to stop its spread.

According to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University, there are over 22.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases globally, with over 783,000 fatalities and more than 14.1 million recoveries.

Scientists believe at least 70 percent of the population must have antibodies to achieve herd immunity. While most studies conducted to date have suggested only about 10 percent to 20 percent of people have antibodies.

Experts warn 'herd immunity' is a dangerous idea

Britain was one of the countries that touted herd immunity as a viable strategy for dealing with COVID-19 in the early days of the outbreak. But studies suggest relying on an ill-defined and dangerous notion of the creation of herd immunity by natural infection resulted in the UK having one of the largest epidemics of any country at this stage of the pandemic.

Top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci also warned the White House enormous death tolls could occur if the U.S. allowed the coronavirus to spread unchecked in an attempt to try to achieve so-called herd immunity

"If everyone contracted it, even with the relatively high percentage of people without symptoms ... a lot of people are going to die," he said in a live Instagram session on Monday.

Fauci noted that with the number of people with diabetes and obesity in the U.S., "the death toll would be enormous and totally unacceptable" if everyone got infected.

Data shows the U.S. has seen over 5.5 million infections and more than 172,000 deaths – both numbers are the highest of any country in the world.

No one's safe until everyone's safe

COVID-19 has been one of the toughest logistical challenges ever faced, WHO Director Tedros Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing on Tuesday.

He expressed while there is a wish among leaders to protect their own people first, the response to this pandemic has to be collective.

Ghebreyesus stressed this is not charity, "the fastest way to end this pandemic and to reopen economies is to start by protecting the highest risk populations everywhere, rather than the entire populations of just some countries."

"No one is safe until everyone is safe."

In order to prevent vaccine nationalism, the WHO has urged wealthier member states to join its COVID-19 vaccine facility by the end of the month.