WHO warns Omicron is not “mild”

Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a recent press conference underscored, though Omicron is less severe as compared to the Delta variant of the COVID-19virus, but it is not appropriate to state it as ‘mild’.

Director-General Ghebreyesus added because of Omicron, more than thousands of individuals are getting hospitalized daily, and it is killing them, just as same to the previous COVID-19 variants.

Providing an update on the COVID-19 cases on Thursday, he noted that since the pandemic emerged, the highest toll of daily COVID-19 infections was reported in the previous week.

The WHO director-general asserted that a study shows, around 109 countries would not be able to fully inoculate its 70 percent of the total population by the start of July 2022. This data was shared by him during a brief media conference on January 7, 2021.

As the world is battling with the contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19, another two variants, Omicron and B.1.640.2, also known as the IHU variant, has been discovered in South Africa and France, respectively.

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, cited, “All preventive & protective measures must be executed with full earnestness by one and all. Authorities must implement situation-specific efforts to arrest the further spread of the virus. People must adhere to these measures. Masks, hand hygiene, cough etiquette, ventilation, and physical distancing is an absolute must”.