Possibility of recent Covid-19 variants actually excessive, warns WHO

Describing the brand new Covid-19 variants because the “wild card”, a prime World Health Organisation official has warned that the Omicron is not going to be the final one and the opportunity of different new variants is de facto excessive.
During a query and reply session that reside streamed on WHO’s social media platforms on Tuesday, the WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove stated that the worldwide well being company is monitoring 4 totally different variations of Omicron.

“We know a lot about this virus, but we don’t know everything. And quite frankly, the variants are the wild card. So we are tracking this virus in real time as it mutates as it changesBut this virus has a lot of room to move,” she stated.

“Omicron is the latest variant of concern. It will not be the last variant of concern that WHO will speak about. The next one, you know, that will come hopefully, it will take some time to get there. But with the level of intensity of spread, the possibility that we will have other variants is really high,” she stated.
“So we need to ensure that we again not only increase vaccination coverage, but we also take measures to reduce the spread,” she added.
Since the designation of B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern on November 26, 2021, a number of lineages have been recognized.
These embrace Pango lineages BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3, that are all being monitored by WHO underneath the umbrella of Omicron’.

“BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world,” Van Kerkhove stated.
According to the UN well being company’s weekly epidemiological report, launched on Tuesday, the Omicron variant is more and more dominant – making up almost 97 per cent of all instances.
“The prevalence of the Omicron variant has increased globally and is now detected in almost all countries. However, many of the countries which reported an early rise in the number of cases due to the Omicron variant have now reported a decline in the total number of new cases since the beginning of January 2022,” it stated.

Globally, through the week of January 31 to February 6, the variety of new Covid-19 instances decreased by 17% as in comparison with the quantity reported through the earlier week, whereas the variety of new deaths elevated by 7%.
As of February 6, over 392 million confirmed instances and over 5.7 million deaths have been reported globally.