WHO: Omicron poses a high risk, but there are doubts about the potential for harm the variant could cause | Globalism

“So far, no deaths associated with the omicron variant have been recorded,” the WHO said in a technical document that also advises authorities to try to halt the progression of the disease.

“Given the mutations that could confer the ability to escape the immune response and give it an advantage in terms of transmissibility, the potential for omicron to spread worldwide is high,” the organization says. The World Health Organization has increased the list of countries where the variant has been detected after the first cases in South Africa in November.

“Due to the characteristics, there may be future spikes in Covid-19, which could have serious consequences,” the WHO said.

The unknowns about the variant, however, are manifold, says the WHO: the level of infection, and whether this is rooted in the mutations present or in the fact that the variant escapes the immune response; The level of protection of current antiviral vaccines and the severity of the disease, that is, whether a variant causes more severe symptoms.

G7 will hold a meeting on the alternative

Health ministers of the G7 nations are meeting urgently in London, on Monday (29), in an effort to stop the spread of Omicron. Infection by the new variant continues to advance around the world, causing growing concern, and many countries have decided to impose new measures to contain the epidemic.

Japan She decided to close her territory For all foreign visitors. Three weeks after easing some restrictions to allow entry for business travelers and students, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “Tokyo will ban all entry of foreigners” from Tuesday (30).

And Japanese returning from nine states and countries in South Africa, where infections with the new variant were first identified, will have to undergo “strict isolation measures, according to the risks.”

Cases linked to the new strain have already been detected in the G7 countries, a situation that has prompted the health ministers of France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom to call an “emergency meeting” to “discuss the evolution of the omicron variant case.”

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Sunday that the discovery of the new species was “very likely within hours”. Eight possible cases of omicron contamination have been detected in the country and are being monitored, according to French authorities.