Omicron poses ‘very high’ risk globally, says WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global warning on Monday, stating that the new COVID-19 form, Omicron, posed a “very high” danger.
It emphasised that questions about how contagious and harmful the strain was remained, according to news agency AFP.

“If another major surge of COVID-19 takes place driven by Omicron, consequences may be severe,” WHO stated, as quoted by AFP.

However, it added that “to date, no deaths linked to Omicron variant have been reported.”

Meanwhile, the WHO on Monday opened a long-planned special session of member states to discuss ways to strengthen the global fight against pandemics like the coronavirus, at a time when the new Omicron variant has sparked immediate worry worldwide, the Associated Press reported.

The new and potentially more contagious B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on November 24.

Naming it Omicron, the WHO had declared it to be a variant of concern.

The classification puts Omicron into the WHO’s top category of worrying COVID-19 variants which includes the globally-dominant Delta, and the weaker variants Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

Omicron is said to have a lot of mutations, around 50 in all. Importantly, more than 30 of the changes were discovered in the spike protein, which is the component that the virus utilises to enter the cells it attacks, according to South African genetic scientists.

As a result of the new variant’s alarming growth, countries all over the world have imposed travel bans and restrictions on southern African countries in an effort to stem the spread of Omicron.

Meanwhile, according to AFP, the WHO has stated that completing research of the Omicron variation to determine if there are any changes in transmissibility, severity, or consequences for COVID vaccinations, testing, and treatments could take several weeks.