Response to omicron variant of coronavirus should be rational, says WHO

The director of the WHO (World Health Organization) asked this Tuesday (30) to member states a “rational and proportional” response to omicron, the new variant of the coronavirus that has caused panic for several days.

“The global response must be calm, coordinated and coherent,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at an information meeting on the new variant at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

“I understand the concern of all countries to protect their citizens against a variant that we do not yet fully understand. But I am also concerned that several member states implement general and brutal measures that are neither evidence-based nor effective on account of own, and that will only aggravate the inequalities”, he affirmed.

“We ask all Member States to adopt a rational and proportional response to risk, in accordance with the International Health Regulations”, he said, mentioning the legal instrument of reference for WHO and the countries that make up the organization.

“We still have more questions than answers about omicron”, he highlighted.

He also said that one shouldn’t be surprised that the virus evolves. “That’s what viruses do,” he insisted.

“The more we allow the pandemic to perpetuate, without remedying inequalities in access to vaccines or not applying social and public health measures in an adapted and coherent manner, the more possibilities we will give the virus to mutate in a way that we cannot anticipate nor prevent,” said Tedros.

The new strain was first detected in South Africa last week but has now spread to all continents. This has led many countries to suspend air connections to southern Africa, introduce preventive devices and, in the case of nations with the largest stockpiles of Covid-19 vaccines, advise a booster dose to the population.

Tedros thanked “Botswana and South Africa for having detected, sequenced and warned about the variant so quickly” and said he was “deeply concerned that these countries are being penalized for doing what they should do”.