The world should not panic about the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 but it should prepare, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
On Friday, top WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan stated that the situation now was very different to a year ago. Reports suggest Omicron has been found in close to 40 countries. It still unclear if the highly mutated variant is more transmissible or better able to evade vaccines. Early data reported by scientists in South Africa – where the variant was first detected – suggests Omicron may evade some immunity to COVID-19, although experts caution the analysis is not definitive.
Dr Swaminathan stated that the variant was “highly transmissible,” citing data from South Africa and added that it could possibly become the dominant strain worldwide – although this is hard to predict. Delta currently accounts for 99% of cases globally.
She stated, “How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we’re in a different situation to a year ago.” WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan meanwhile stated that the world currently had “highly effective vaccines” against COVID-19 and the focus should be on distributing them more widely. He added that there was no evidence to back changing these jabs to tailor them to the new Omicron variant.
