LONDON: Future pandemic can be more deadly than Covid-19 so the lessons learned from the outbreak should not be wasted and the world must ensure it prepared for the next viral proposal, one of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine makers said.
Novel Coronavirus has killed 5.26 million people globally, removing trillions of dollars in economic output and turning life for billions of people.
“The truth is, the next one can be worse.
It can be more contagious, or more deadly, or both,” said Sarah Gilbert in Richard Dimbly, BBC reported.
“It won’t be the last sentence of the virus threatening our lives and our livelihoods.” Gilbert, a Professor Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, said the world must ensure it is better prepared for the next virus.
“The progress we make, and the knowledge we get, should not be lost,” he said.
Gilbert said the protein surge in the omicron strain contained a mutation that was known to increase the transmission of the virus.
“Until we know more, we have to be careful” the warning came when Russia, Nepal and Thailand reported their first omicron cases.
“Two citizens who returned to Russia from South Africa were diagnosed with Omicron strains,” said the country’s Rospotrebnadzor Health Agency.
Agency said that all Russians returned from South Africa and neighboring countries were tested on the border and placed in special observatories.
Nepal detects two cases and Thai one.
Meanwhile, British Health Minister Sajid Javid said there was now a community transmission of the Omicron variant in England but it was too early to say if this would “knock us out of our way for recovery”.
He said now there are 261 omicron cases in England, 71 in Scotland and 4 in Wales – total 336.
“These include cases without links to international travel, so we can conclude that there is now a community transmission.”