Geneva: After the emergence of new Covid-19 variant Omicron sparking concerns worldwide with several countries rushing to shut borders and clamp quarantine measures for passengers arriving from South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) had warned that a “toxic mix” of low rates of immunization and testing were fanning new variants. “Globally, we have a toxic mix of low vaccine coverage, and very low testing — a recipe for breeding and amplifying variants,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reminding the world that the Delta variant “accounts for almost all cases.”
The Omicron variant, first reported to the WHO by South Africa a week ago, has spread rapidly across continents, darkening economic forecasts and deepening fears of another difficult winter. Ghebreyesus sounded a reminder that while global attention turns to ‘Omicron,’ the world was already grappling with the “highly transmissible, dangerous” Delta variant, which currently “accounts for almost all cases” globally.
“We need to use the tools we already have to prevent transmission and save lives from Delta. And if we do that, we will also prevent transmission and save lives from Omicron,” he said.
So far, two dozen countries and territories have detected Omicron cases, including Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Israel, Italy, Nigeria and Portugal. Tedros said he expected that number to grow.
The WHO said it could take several weeks to understand whether or not Omicron is more transmissible, and whether it results in more severe disease — plus the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines against the variant.
Its detection and spread, however, have highlighted that the now nearly two-year global fight against COVID-19 is far from over.
Earlier, the head of the UN health agency has criticized “blunt” and “blanket” measures taken by countries in the past few days to stop the spread of the Omicron variant.
In a statement on Tuesday, the WHO Director-General said that it was “deeply concerning” that Botswana and South Africa, where the new variant was first identified, were “being penalized by others for doing the right thing”.
Dozens of countries have imposed travel bans on the southern African nations since the mutation was discovered at the end of last week.
