WHO Warns Omicron Is Not Common Cold

The UK has reportedly seen about 14 deaths due to the Omicron variant, while the US and South Korea have seen one death each. The deaths occurred majorly in unvaccinated persons.

“Omicron is not the common cold! Health systems can get overwhelmed,” reiterated WHO’s chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan on Twitter.

It is “important to have systems to test, advise and monitor large numbers of patients as the surge can be sudden and huge,” she warned.

Kerkhove stated that “we can prevent infections, save lives now” by ensuring vaccine equity.

Meanwhile, WHO on Tuesday also stated that emerging evidence reveals that the Omicron affects the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants.

“We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike the other ones, that could cause severe pneumonia,” WHO Incident Manager Abdi Mahamud told Geneva-based journalists.

At the same time, the global health body warned that soaring infections due to Omicron across the world could lead to the emergence of new variants, media reports said. The more variant spreads, the more it can replicate and bring out a new variant that can be more lethal.

France has detected a new variant named IHU. The new variant, with 46 mutations, has already infected 12 people, both vaccinated and unvaccinated. While it may pose a greater risk than Omicron, touted as highly transmissible but mild in infections and less lethal than previous the Delta variant, researchers said, “it is too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this IHU variant based on (just) 12 cases”.

Source: IANS