New Delhi: The United Nations health agencies are still conducting studies in South Africa to understand the severity of the Omicron variant of covid-19 after it was categorised as the “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization last week.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu on Wednesday said, “the emergence of the Omicron variant has understandably captured global attention...But it should not surprise us. This is what viruses do.”
Although the number of cases is surging rapidly in South Africa, the death rate is still not that high to raise concerns.
“While preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of a specific infection with Omicron,” said the UN health experts.
A report by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases stated, “(The) mutation profile and epidemiological picture suggests Omicron is able to get around some of our immune protection (to cause infection) but the protection against severe disease and death from vaccines should be less affected.”
The evolving situation has led the UN and WHO officials to call for lifting the travel bans imposed by several countries.
“With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity. COVID-19 constantly exploits our divisions. We will only get the better of the virus if we work together for solutions,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
Soon after the detection of the new variant from South Africa, travel restrictions were imposed by several countries on flights from several African nations which had confirmed cases of the new variant.