Covid-19: Omicron “remains a dangerous virus”, warns the WHO

Symptoms of the Omicron variant, which is less severe than Delta, especially for people who are fully vaccinated and who have had a booster dose, lead some to now see it as a mild illness. Corn, “more transmission means more hospitalizations, more deaths, more people who cannot work, including teachers and health workers, and more risks of another variant emerging which will be even more transmissible and deadlier than Omicron”, warned on Wednesday the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“Although Omicron causes less severe symptoms than Delta (the hitherto dominant variant, editor’s note), it remains a dangerous virus, especially for those who are not vaccinated”, he insisted during a press conference.

“It’s not a benign disease, it’s a disease that can be prevented with vaccines”, launched for his part Michael Ryan, the head of emergency situations at the WHO. “Now is not the time to give up, now is not the time to let our guard down, now is not the time to say this is a virus that is welcome, no virus is the welcome”, launched Dr. Ryan.

The variant, which was first identified in southern Africa in late November 2021, has since taken the world by storm, turning the curves marking daily infections in many countries into vertical walls, at levels not seen since the start. of the pandemic.

The hope of some is that due to its extraordinary rate of transmission Omicron will replace the more dangerous variants and help turn the pandemic into a more manageable endemic disease.