Covid Fact | Don't Dismiss Omicron As Mild, WHO Warns Citing ‘Tsunami Of Cases So Huge And Quick‘

WHO chief noted that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people, too.

WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus | Image: AFP

Geneva: With the cases of Omicron surging across the globe, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the new variant should not be dismissed as mild.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed that the record numbers of infections from the new variant, which is surpassing the numbers of previously-dominant Delta variant in many countries, meant hospitals coming under pressure.

"While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild," Tedros told a press conference, according to AFP report.

What are new concerns from Omicron variant?

WHO chief went on to explain that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people. "In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world."

Just under 9.5 million new Covid-19 cases were reported to the WHO last week, a record, up 71 percent on the week before.

Saying that even this figure was an underestimate, he noted that it did not count the backlog of testing around the Christmas-New Year holidays, positive self-tests not registered besides overburdened surveillance systems missing cases.

Tedros also stressed that vaccination targets are slipping away. In his first speech of 2022, the WHO chief slamed the way rich nations hogged available vaccine doses last year, saying it had created the perfect breeding ground for the emergence of virus variants.

He, therefore, urged the world to share out vaccine doses more fairly in 2022, to end the "death and destruction" of Covid-19.

What are vaccination goals of WHO?

The WHO expects every country to have 10 percent of its population vaccinated by the end of September 2021 and 40 percent by the end of December.

It is to be noted that 92 of the WHO's 194 member states missed the target set for the end of 2021 -- indeed 36 of them had not even jabbed the first 10 percent, largely due to being unable to access doses.

Tedros wants 70 per cent jabbed in every country by mid-2022. On the current pace of vaccine roll-out, 109 countries will miss that target.