New Delhi: The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that preliminary data showed that transmission of the Omicron variant easily re-infects people who have had the virus or who have been vaccinated, with the disease being milder than previous variants. is likely to.
He told reporters that more data is needed to draw a firm conclusion. “There is also some evidence that Omicron causes milder disease than the delta,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
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He also urged that countries should boost their surveillance to get a clear picture of how this edition is behaving which will help draw firm conclusions on Omicron. “The Omicron variant is now reported in 57 countries and we expect this number to continue to grow. Some characteristics of Omicron, including its global prevalence and large number of mutations, suggest that it may be a major factor over the course of the COVID19 pandemic. could have an impact”, the WHO chief said.
“Exactly what that effect will be is still difficult to know. We are now beginning to see a consistent picture of a rapid increase in transmission, although for now it is difficult to measure the exact rate of increase relative to other forms”-@Dr Tedros https://t.co/dCa1zC55Py
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 8, 2021
Dr. Tedros also said that as global concern grew over the heavily mutated version, dozens of countries were forced to re-impose border restrictions and the prospect of a return to financially punishing lockdowns increased. Even if it turns out that Omicron causes less severe disease, Tedros cautioned against lowering vigilance against the virus.
“Any complacency now will cost lives,” he warned.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan concurred, saying the Omicron version “is transmitting efficiently, and probably more efficiently than the Delta version.”
“That doesn’t mean the virus is invincible,” he said.
“But it means the virus is more efficient at transmitting between humans. And so we have to redouble our efforts to break those chains of transmission to protect ourselves, to protect others”, he said.
He also said that even though the variant is less dangerous, it could still make more people sick and burden health care systems.
WHO experts emphasized the importance of vaccination, highlighting that even if vaccines prove less effective against omicrons, as some data indicate, they are expected to provide significant protection against serious disease. Is performed.
Meanwhile, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the quick response to early studies indicates that the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine has reduced efficacy against the new variant, adding that the study was “very small”. ” Was.
“Therefore I think it is too early to conclude that this lack of neutralizing activity will result in a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness,” she said. “We don’t know that.”
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