Face masks ought to be beneficial to passengers: WHO as new Covid variant spreads

Passengers on long-haul flights ought to put on face masks, the World Health Organisation (WHO) mentioned amid the fast unfold of the newest Omicron subvariant within the United States.

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jan 12, 2023 12:18 IST

Visitors sporting protecting face masks stroll underneath decorations for the New Year (Photo: Reuters)

By India Today Web Desk: Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday mentioned nations ought to contemplate recommending that passengers put on masks on long-haul flights. The assertion comes amid the fast unfold of the newest Omicron subvariant of Covid-19 within the United States.

Addressing a press convention, the WHO and European officers mentioned the sporting of face masks ought to be a suggestion issued to passengers arriving from anyplace the place there’s widespread Covid-19 transmission.

WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood mentioned, “Countries need to look at the evidence base for pre-departure testing” and if motion is taken into account, journey measures ought to be carried out in a non-discriminatory method.”

That did not mean the agency recommended testing for passengers from the United States at this stage, she added.

Last week, the EU’s Integrated Political Crisis Response group (IPCR), a body made up of officials from the EU’s 27 governments, also recommended all passengers on flights to and from China should wear face masks and random testing of passengers arriving from China.

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Many scientists – including from the WHO – believe China is likely under-reporting the true extent of its outbreak.

The WHO is aware that the case-definition of what counts as a Covid-19 death in China is narrow and “not essentially the case definition that WHO has beneficial nations undertake,” said Smallwood.

More than a dozen countries – including the United States – are demanding Covid tests from travellers from China.

XBB.1.5 – THE MOST TRANSMISSIBLE OMICRON SUBVARIANT

XBB.1.5 – the most transmissible Omicron subvariant detected so far – accounted for 27.6 per cent of Covid-19 cases in the United States for the week ended January 7, health officials have said.

It was unclear if XBB.1.5 would cause its own wave of global infections.

The variant is another descendant of Omicron, the most contagious and now globally dominant variant of the virus that causes Covid-19.

It is an offshoot of XBB, first detected in October, itself a recombinant of two other Omicron subvariants.

Concerns about XBB.1.5 fuelling a fresh spate of cases in the United States and beyond are rising amid a surge of Covid cases in China after the country pivoted away from its signature “zero COVID” policy last month.

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WHAT DATA ON OMICRON VARIANTS SHOW

According to data reported by the WHO earlier this month, an analysis by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed a predominance of Omicron sublineages BA.5.2 and BF.7 among locally acquired infections.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Tuesday issued recommendations for flights between China and the European Union including “non-pharmaceutical measures to cut back the unfold of the virus, resembling mask-wearing and testing of travellers, in addition to monitoring of waste water as an early warning software to detect new variants.”

The agencies recommend “random testing may additionally be carried out on a pattern of arriving passengers” and “enhanced cleansing and disinfection of plane serving these routes.”

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Published On:

Jan 12, 2023