GENEVA, Switzerland — The Omicron variant of
COVID-19 is dangerous — and especially so for those who have not been
vaccinated against the disease, the
World Health Organization (WHO) said
Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
The WHO said the huge global
spike in cases was being driven by Omicron but insisted there should be no
surrender to the variant of concern.
“While Omicron causes less
severe disease than
Delta, it remains a dangerous virus, particularly for those
who are unvaccinated,” WHO chief
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press
conference.
“We mustn’t allow this virus
a free ride or wave the white flag, especially when so many people around the
world remain unvaccinated.
“In Africa, over 85 percent
of people are yet to receive a single dose of vaccine. We can’t end the acute
phase of the pandemic unless we close this gap.”
Tedros wanted every country
to have 10 percent of their population vaccinated by the end of September 2021,
40 percent by the end of December, and 70 percent by mid-2022.
But 90 countries had still
not reached 40 percent, 36 of them still short of the 10-percent mark, he said.
The “overwhelming majority”
of people admitted to hospitals around the world were unvaccinated, he added.
While vaccines remain very
effective at preventing death and severe COVID-19 disease, they do not fully
prevent transmission, said Tedros.
“More transmission means more
hospitalizations, more deaths, more people off work — including teachers and
health workers — and more risk of another variant emerging that is even more
transmissible and more deadly than
Omicron.”
Tedros said that the numbers
of deaths worldwide had stabilized at around 50,000 per week.
“Learning to live with this
virus does not mean we can, or should, accept this number of deaths,” he said.
WHO emergencies director
Michael Ryan added: “This is not the time to declare this is a welcome virus.”
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
