The WHO chief urged the world to share out vaccine doses more fairly in 2022
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Not To Be Categorised As 'Mild': Warns WHO As Omicron Cases Explode
The WHO chief urged the world to share out vaccine doses more fairly in 2022
COVID-19
The World Health Organization on Thursday warned about the Omicron variant and said that it should not be dismissed as ‘mild’. The new variant of Covid-19 is killing people across the globe.
Addressing a press conference, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild.”
He mentioned that the record numbers of people catching the new variant are rapidly growing.
"Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people," Ghebreyesus said.
The WHO chief further said the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world.
Last week, around 9.5 million new Covid-19 cases were reported to the WHO, 71 per cent higher than the previous week.
Ghebreyesus said that even this tally was an underestimate, as it did not reflect the backlog of testing around the Christmas-New Year holidays, positive self-tests not registered, and overburdened surveillance systems missing cases.
He also slammed the rich nations during his speech and said that they hogged available vaccine doses last year, adding that it created the perfect breeding ground for the emergence of virus variants. Therefore, the WHO chief urged the world to share out vaccine doses more fairly in 2022, to end the "death and destruction" by Covid-19.
Furthermore, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan also warned and said without vaccine equity, "we will be sitting here at the end of 2022 having somewhat the same conversation, which, in itself, would be a great tragedy".
