Dangerous to assume Omicron as last Covid variant, says WHO Chief

The chief of World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said that it would be dangerous to assume that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 would be the last one to emerge and that the world was at the "end game" of the pandemic. "Conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge," Ghebreyesus further added. Tedros further said that more than 80 million cases have been reported since the Omicron variant was detected. He claimed that the figure was higher than the total number of cases reported in the entire year of 2020. Furthermore, the WHO chief stated that the world can resolve the Covid-19 emergency this year, although the virus killed someone every 12 seconds last week. Also Read | India logs 3 lakh fresh Covid cases, positivity rate at 20.75% "We can end Covid-19 as a global health emergency this year," Tedros told the executive board of the UN health agency. To do so, he said, countries must work more to provide equal access to vaccines and treatment, track the virus and its new strains, and enforce restrictions. The WHO has been urging countries to do more to speed up vaccine distribution to poorer countries for months, encouraging all countries to vaccinate at least 70% of their populations by the middle of this year. According to Tedros, half of the WHO's 194 member states missed their previous target of vaccinating 40% of their populations by the end of 2021, and 85 percent of people in Africa had yet to receive a single shot. "We simply cannot end the pandemic's emergency phase unless we bridge that gap," he warned. "On average, 100 cases were reported every three seconds last week, and someone died from Covid-19 every 12 seconds," he continued. Since its detection in late 2019, Covid-19 has killed over 5.5 million individuals, and the new Omicron version has pushed case numbers to new highs. Tedros claimed 80 million cases had been reported to the WHO since the Omicron strain was first discovered in southern Africa nine weeks ago. He also acknowledged that "the boom in cases has not been matched by a surge in deaths." Omicron appears to cause less severe disease than previous variants. The WHO chief stated that the world would have to learn to live with Covid. "On the contrary, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge globally," he stated. "The possibility of a more transmissible, more lethal variant still exists." Also Read | UP Elections 2022: SP releases list of 159 candidates, Akhilesh Yadav to contest from Karhal -PTC News