The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on the countries of the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen their health systems and fully vaccinate their populations in order to prepare for an increase in the cases of the new coronavirus that can be caused by the Omicron variant.
For this new strain of coronavirus, found in southern Africa last month and described as a “variant of concern” by the WHO, scientists are still gathering data to assess how contagious the severity of the disease is. It has been spotted in at least twenty-four countries and began gaining ground in Asia this week, with cases reported from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and India. Many governments responded by imposing stricter travel rules.
“Border controls can be time-consuming, but every country and every community needs to be prepared for new cases,” Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for the West Pacific, told reporters online.
“People should not rely solely on border measures. What is most important is to prepare for these potentially highly contagious variants. So far, the information available suggests that we do not need to change our approach,” he said.
Kasai added that countries should learn from the lessons learned from treating the delta strain of the new coronavirus and called on them to fully vaccinate vulnerable groups of their population and implement preventive measures such as the use of protective masks and rules. social distancing.
Despite restrictions on international travelers, Australia announced the transmission to the Omicron community today, just one day after it was spotted in five US states.
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