The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that omicron will not be the last variant of the coronavirus to be detected, without being able to predict whether the next one will cause a more or less serious type of disease.
“Another thing we have to remember is that omicron will not be the last variant. We do not know where this virus is going and, as we have said, the more it replicates as it is doing, the more likely we will face other, more dangerous variants, “said Bruce Aylward, advisor to the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom.
On the other hand, the WHO has recalled that omicron’s ability to cause harm should not be underestimated. In this regard, the director of Health Emergencies of the WHO, Mike Ryan, indicated that omicron can be less serious in the infection that it causes to an individual.
But this does not mean that it causes a mild illness. At the moment there are many people around the world who are in intensive care units and with mechanical ventilation, so obviously I would not say that it is a disease that can be taken lightly ”, Ryan pointed out.
Therefore, the experts of the health institution asked governments and citizens to continue using all the tools available to stop as much as possible the advance of omicron, which has already become the dominant variant by representing 60% of cases worldwide.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in this context, recalled that last week more than 15 million new cases of COVID-19 were reported worldwide. This made it the one with the highest number of infections since the pandemic began and this considering that it is an underreporting.
The experts involved in the fight against the pandemic at the WHO recalled that, although omicron causes a covid-19 less serious than previous variants, the curve of cases is so “vertical” that many national health systems are saturated and people suffer from other diseases are suffering because they do not receive the care they require.
“It is amazing, in thirty years working with infectious diseases, we have never seen a pandemic curve like this,” stressed Aylward.
The WHO also recalled that the acute phase of the pandemic cannot be ended if inequality in access to vaccines continues. 85% of people in Africa have not yet received a single dose and the goal that by the middle of this year 70% of the population of each country is fully vaccinated remains uncertain.
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