More proof is rising that the Omicron coronavirus variant is affecting the higher respiratory tract, inflicting milder signs than earlier variants, a World Health Organization official stated on Tuesday.
“We are seeing more and more studies showing that Omicron is infecting the upper body. Unlike others, it can cause severe pneumonia,” Abdi Mahmoud, WHO occasion supervisor, advised Geneva-based journalists. “There could possibly be excellent news.
However, he added that Omicron’s excessive transmittance means it can take impact inside weeks in lots of locations, posing a risk in international locations the place a big proportion of the inhabitants lives with out vaccination.
His feedback on the decreased threat of great sickness chime in with different knowledge, together with a research from South Africa, which was one of many first international locations the place Omicron was detected.
However, Mahmoud additionally referred to as for warning, calling South Africa an “outsider” due to its younger inhabitants, amongst different components.
Asked whether or not an Omicron-specific vaccine is required, Mahmood stated it was too early to say, however burdened that the choice required world coordination and never left it to the business sector to resolve alone. ought to go.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
