Describing the brand new Covid-19 variants because the “wild card”, a high World Health Organization official has warned that the Omicron won’t be the final one and the opportunity of different new variants is absolutely excessive.
During a query and reply session that reside streamed on WHO’s social media platforms on Tuesday, the WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove mentioned that the worldwide well being company is monitoring 4 completely different variations of Omicron.
“We know a lot about this virus, but we don’t know everything. And quite frankly, the variants are the wild card. So we are tracking this virus in real time as it mutates as it changesBut this virus has a lot of room to move,” she mentioned.
“Omicron is the most recent variant of concern. It won’t be the final variant of concern that WHO will talk about. The subsequent one, you already know, that can come, hopefully, it’s going to take a while to get there. But with the extent of depth of unfold, the chance that we are going to produce other variants is absolutely excessive,” she mentioned.
“So we need to ensure that we again not only increase vaccination coverage, but we also take measures to reduce the spread,” she added.
Since the designation of B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern on November 26, 2021, a number of lineages have been recognized.
These embrace Pango lineages BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3, that are all being monitored by WHO below the umbrella of Omicron’.
“BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world,” Van Kerkhove mentioned.
According to the UN well being company’s weekly epidemiological report, launched on Tuesday, the Omicron variant is more and more dominant – making up almost 97 per cent of all circumstances.
“The prevalence of the Omicron variant has elevated globally and is now detected in nearly all international locations. However, most of the international locations which reported an early rise within the variety of circumstances as a result of Omicron variant have now reported a decline within the whole variety of new circumstances for the reason that starting of January 2022,” it mentioned.
Globally, throughout the week of January 31 to February 6, the variety of new Covid-19 circumstances decreased by 17% as in comparison with the quantity reported throughout the earlier week, whereas the variety of new deaths elevated by 7%.
As of February 6, over 392 million confirmed circumstances and over 5.7 million deaths have been reported globally.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
