WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a press conference following the opening of the WHO Academy, in Lyon, France, September 27, 2021.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
The World Health Organization on Tuesday warned that the new Covid-19 omicron variant is spreading faster than any previous strain and is probably already present in most countries around the world.
“Omicron is spreading at a rate we’ve never seen with any variant before,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. Covid updated in Geneva. “Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of omicrons. And the fact is that omicrons are probably in most of the countries, even if it hasn’t been detected.”
Tedros said the WHO is concerned that countries are phasing out omicrons as a slight variant. Although omicrons are more contagious, it remains unclear whether this strain of the virus causes milder or more severe illness than previous variants of the virus.
“We learned that we underestimated how dangerous this virus is,” said Tedros. “Even if omicrons cause less severe disease, the number of cases could again overwhelm unprepared health systems,” he said.
Tedros warned that vaccines alone will not protect countries from omicrons, stressing the importance of masks and social distancing.
“It’s not a vaccine instead of a mask. It’s not a vaccine instead of remote therapy. It’s not a vaccine instead of ventilation or hand hygiene. Let’s do it all. Do the thing. that’s consistent. Do it well,” Tedros said.
The omicron variant significantly reduces the protection against infection provided by Pfizer and BioNTech’s two-dose vaccine, according to preliminary lab data released by the companies last week. Scientists at the University of Oxford published a study on Monday that also showed Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are less effective against omicrons.
However, a two-dose vaccine can still protect against severe illness. Pfizer and BioNTech found that booster injections provide a significant level of protection against omicron infections.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies programme, said mitigation measures such as mask wearing and social distancing will not completely stop transmission of the virus, but they do. will reduce the pressure on health systems around the world.
“If we all put those measures in place, we won’t stop transmission of omicrons or deltas – it’s very difficult to contain,” Ryan said at the briefing with Tedros. “But what we’re going to do is significantly reduce the force of infection, we’re going to reduce that pressure wave, and then hopefully overcome this wave in a way that we don’t disrupt or crash the system.” our public health.”
Ryan said governments around the world need to prepare for a wave of infections by making sure hospitals are staffed, triaged and oxygenated on site. He also said governments need to continue to push the unvaccinated to get vaccinated.
“The health system is weaker now than it was a year ago,” he said. “Unfortunately, sometimes you can get up after the first punch, but it’s very difficult to get up after the second. And that’s difficult. We’re relying on the healthcare system paramedics. was weakened by this response.”
Tedros said the WHO is concerned that wealthy countries that introduce booster doses to their entire adult populations will exacerbate vaccine inequality around the world. He made it clear that WHO is not against the use of boosters for people at risk of severe illness, but that the main priority remains to vaccinate those who have not been vaccinated.
The WHO director said 41 countries have not yet vaccinated 10% of the population and 98 countries have not reached 40% of the population.
“We also see significant inequalities between populations within the same country,” says Tedros. “If we allow inequality to continue, we allow the pandemic to continue.”
Ryan said blanket travel bans create a false sense of security because variants like omicrons spread before being detected. Last month, the US banned travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
“Countries have the right to defend themselves and defend themselves, they have the right to control their borders, they do it for all sorts of other reasons,” Ryan said. “But it must be done in a way that preserves, as far as possible, the free movement of people, the rights of the individual human being, and with regard to the economic impacts of such measures. for countries.”
