Geneva: Omicron variant of Covid-19 kills people all over the world and should not be dismissed as light, the World Health Organization insists on Thursday.
Head of Tedros Chief Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the record number of people who captured the new variant – who quickly competed the dominant Delta variant in many countries – which was meant by an overwhelmed hospital.
“While Omicron seems to be less severe than Delta, especially for those who are vaccinated, that does not mean it must be categorized lightly,” Tedro told a press conference.
“Just like the previous variant, Omicron is a person in the hospital and it kills people,” he explained.
“Actually, the tsunami case is very large and fast, that it is an extraordinary health system throughout the world.” Only under 9.5 million new Covid-19 cases were reported to WHO last week – a record rose 71 percent in the previous week.
But even this is the leading, said Tedros, because it does not reflect a stack of tests around the new Christmas holidays, positive self-tests are not registered, and the scattered supervision system is lost.
Tedro uses his first speech in 2022 to slam the rich way of countries available at the vaccine dose available last year, saying it has created a perfectly breeding place for the emergence of virus variants.
Therefore he urged the world to distribute vaccine doses fairer in 2022, to end the “death and destruction” Covid-19.
Tedros wanted each country to have 10 percent of their population vaccinated at the end of September 2021 and 40 percent at the end of December.
Ninety-two of WHO 194 member countries missed the target set for the end of 2021 – indeed 36 of them did not even highlight the first 10 percent, mostly because they could not access the dose.
Tedro wants 70 percent to be attached to each country in mid 2022.
At the rate of roll-out vaccine at this time, 109 countries will miss the target.
“Vaccine inequality is a killer of people and employment and undermining global economic recovery,” Tedro said.
“Booster after a booster in a small number of countries will not end the pandemic while billions are still truly protected.” WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove said “very impossible” that Omicron would be the last variant that was a concern before the pandemic ended.
In the face of omicron variants that are more transmitting, Van Kerkhove urges people to increase the steps they have taken to protect themselves from the virus.
“Do everything we have given better suggestions, more comprehensive, more deliberate,” he said.
“We need people to stay there and really fight.” Van Kerkrove added that he was stunned by how slarming some people were wearing facemask.
“Need to cover your nose and mouth …
Wearing a mask under your Dagum is useless,” he said.
Looking forward to this year, Bruce Aylward, The Who’s Frontman to access the Coronavirus tool, added that there was “no need to complete 2022 in a pandemic”.
But who’s emergency director Michael Ryan said that without vaccine equity, “We will sit here at the end of 2022 having a rather same conversation, which, itself, will be a great tragedy”.