The Omicron variant of Covid-19 poses a very high risk and is likely to spread globally, the World Health Organization said in a technical...
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 poses a very high risk and is likely to spread globally, the World Health Organization said in a technical brief to member countries on Monday.
The global health shared the technical brief with member countries three days after it designated Omicron as a “variant of concern”. A “variant of concern” has the highest threat perception among other coronavirus variants because of its increased transmissibility, infectivity, or resistance to vaccines.
The Omicron variant’s mutations may enable it to escape the immune system and may allow it to be transmitted more widely, the World Health Organization said.
“Depending on these characteristics, there could be future surges of COVID‐19, which could have severe consequences, depending on a number of factors including where surges may take place,” the global health body noted. “The overall global risk related to the new VOC [variant of concern] Omicron is assessed as very high.”
The World Health Body said that the Omicron variant has an “unprecedented number” of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the pandemic.
The organisation said that no deaths related to the variant have been reported till now. However, it noted that Covid-19 cases had increased steeply in South Africa in recent weeks, coinciding with the...
