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Business News/ News / World/  Omicron poses high risk, world must be prepared,  says  WHO
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Omicron poses high risk, world must be prepared,  says  WHO

The apex UN health agency said that 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

On 26 November 2021, WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). Premium
On 26 November 2021, WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). 

NEW DELHI : The emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant poses a “very high" risk of infection, and there could be future surges of covid-19 with potentially severe consequences, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The apex UN health agency said, however, that it isn’t clear yet exactly how transmissible the variant is or how well vaccines protect against it. It said a serious impact from the new mutation would depend on several factors, including where the surges occur.

Omicron, or B.1.1.529, was discovered in South Africa earlier this month. Confirmed or suspected cases of the Omicron variant have now emerged in several other countries.

“Increasing cases, regardless of a change in severity, may pose overwhelming demands on health care systems and may lead to increased morbidity and mortality. The impact on vulnerable populations would be substantial, particularly in countries with low vaccination coverage," the WHO said in a technical brief.

Omicron is a highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations, including 26-32 in the spike, some of which may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility, the WHO said.

“The emergence of the highly-mutated Omicron variant underlines just how perilous and precarious our situation is. Indeed, Omicron demonstrates just why the world needs a new accord on pandemics: our current system disincentivizes countries from alerting others to threats that will inevitably land on their shores," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at the special session of the World Health Assembly on Monday.

South Africa has strongly protested bans on flights to and from Western nations, arguing it was only alerting other countries about the variant.

However, the global public health agency said there are still considerable uncertainties. “The main uncertainties are how transmissible the variant is and whether any increases are related to immune escape, intrinsic increased transmissibility, or both; how well vaccines protect against infection, transmission, clinical disease of different degrees of severity and death; and does the variant present with a different severity profile," the WHO said.

“Given mutations that may confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility advantage, the likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high," it said.

“We don’t yet know whether Omicron is associated with more transmission, more severe disease, more risk of reinfections, or more risk of evading vaccines. Scientists at WHO and around the world are working urgently to answer these questions," said Tedros, adding that there shouldn’t be a need for yet another wake-up call.

According to WHO, to date, no death linked to the Omicron variant has been reported. However, local transmission has been reported in South Africa, and there is evidence of spread to several countries in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe and the Western Pacific. “While most identified in these countries are travel-related, we expect this to change as more information becomes available. Overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron is thus considered very high," the WHO said.

Neither is it clear whether Omicron is more transmissible and causes more severe disease than other variants such as Delta, the WHO said.

The health agency said the number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiological studies are underway to understand if it is because of Omicron or other factors.

“We should all be wide awake to the threat of this virus. But Omicron’s very emergence is another reminder that although many of us might think we are done with covid, it is not done with us. We are living through a cycle of panic and neglect," warned Tedros.

In India, the government has urged states to enhance testing.

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Published: 29 Nov 2021, 07:15 PM IST
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