Europe 1 with AFP 5:53 p.m., December 01, 2021
The world is facing a "toxic cocktail" with insufficient vaccine coverage against Covid-19 and a level of screening, warned the head of the WHO on Wednesday, assuring that it was a field suitable for variants.
The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm.
"The end of the pandemic is not a question of luck, it is a question of choice", declared the Director General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Wednesday at a press conference.
Omicron worries WHO
"Globally, we have a toxic mix of low vaccination coverage and very low screening, a perfect recipe for variants to reproduce and amplify," he warned. This warning comes as the appearance of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in November plunged the planet into panic. Never has a variant caused so much concern in the world since the emergence of Delta. According to the WHO, Omicron "was first reported to the WHO on November 24, 2021 by South Africa, while the first known laboratory-confirmed case was identified from a sample taken on November 9, 2021. November". The WHO last Friday called Omicron a variant of "concern", the highest level.
Omicron worries experts because it has many mutations that could make it more contagious, and potentially more resistant to vaccines.
Studies are underway to determine if this is indeed the case, and to what extent, but the first results should only be available in the coming weeks.
"At least 23 countries in five of the six WHO regions have now reported cases of Omicron, and we expect that number to increase," Tedros said.
There have been four other variants of concern so far: Delta, which represents almost all of the cases sequenced worldwide, Alpha, Beta and Gamma.