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The World Health Organization on Wednesday warned against treating the omicron Covid variant as a mild strain, warning that the virus would also cause severe illness.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid-19 technical team leader, told the public: “We know that people infected with omicrons can have the entire spectrum of illness, from asymptomatic infection to mild illness, and then go on to transition. serious illness to death. Question and Answer section.
The WHO warned on Tuesday that omicrons are spreading faster than any previous variant. Van Kerkhove said on Wednesday that increased transmission would lead to an increase in the number of hospital admissions that would burden health care systems, some of which would fail.
“If a system is overloaded, people die,” says Van Kerkhove. “We have to be really careful that there’s no story out there that it’s just a mild illness.”
Van Kerkhove said the elderly, those with underlying health conditions and those who have not been immunized are still at risk for severe illness.
Dr Mike Ryan, director of WHO’s health emergencies programme, said the omicron variation was doubling every two days or less in the UK.
“If you have 100,000 cases today, that’s 200,000 cases in a two-day period, but then 400,000 cases in two days, and then 800,000 cases in two days,” Ryan said. . Within a week, “the actual number of cases could increase by eight or ten times and that’s what we’re concerned about.”
Van Kerkhove said people need to continue with Covid prevention measures, including wearing masks, keeping distance from people and washing hands.
“So we need to act now. It’s not the time to wait. There’s no time to wait until we start to see an increasing number of hospitalizations,” she said. note that some countries have seen an increase in hospitalizations. “Especially with the holidays approaching and society becoming more and more chaotic… people need to reevaluate and reevaluate what they do, and make the best decisions for them and the best. for your family.”
The UK on Wednesday reported its highest number of Covid infections since the pandemic began, with more than 78,000 new cases in the past 24 hours. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned of a “tidal wave” of omicron infections in the coming days.
