Scale up health, social measures to prevent spread of Omicron: World Health Organisation

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 18

With seven countries in the South-East Asia Region confirming cases of the new Covid-19 variant Omicron, the World Health Organisation today emphasised on urgent scale up of public health and social measures to curtail its further spread.

Has doubling rate of 1.5 to 3 days

Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant in countries with documented community transmission, with a doubling time between 1.5 and 3 days. World Health Organisation

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“Countries can and must prevent the spread of Omicron with the proven health and social measures. Our focus must continue to be to protect the least protected and those at high risk,” said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region.

The overall threat posed by Omicron largely depends on three key questions — its transmissibility; how well the vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect against it, and how virulent the variant is as compared to other variants.

“From what we know so far, Omicron appears to spread faster than the Delta variant which has been attributed to the surge in cases across the world in the last several months,” she said.

Emerging data from South Africa suggests increased risk of re-infection with Omicron, she said, adding that there was still limited data on the clinical severity associated with Omicron. “Further information is needed to fully understand the variant. It should not be dismissed as mild,” she said, adding that even if it does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm health systems.

Variant tally 126

• India’s Omicron Covid count rose to 126 on Saturday after Karnataka and Kerala reported six and four cases respectively, while three more persons in Maharashtra also tested positive for the variant
• Delhi recorded 86 new Covid cases, highest single-day rise in over five months