Omicron variant risk remains very high, says WHO

The risk associated with the omicron variant of the coronavirus remains very high, with new infections reported in the last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

“More than 21 million new cases have been reported, the highest number of cases per week since the beginning of the pandemic,” the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological report on Covid-19.

The agency noted that the number of new cases grew by 5% in the week to Sunday, compared with a 20% increase the week before.

“A slower increase in the incidence of cases has been observed globally,” the WHO added.

Almost 50,000 new deaths were also recorded, similar to the previous week, according to the entity, which stressed that the omnin variant remains the dominant in the world.

“The current epidemiology of Sars-CoV-2 is characterized by the dominance of the ômicron variant on a global scale, the decreasing prevalence of the delta variant and a very low circulation of the alpha, beta and gamma variants,” he explained.

“Countries that had a rapid increase in omicron cases in November and December 2021 had or are starting to see declines in cases,” he added.

However, “based on current evidence, the overall risk associated with the omicron variant remains very high.”

The WHO specified that, in the sequences of samples collected in the last 30 days, the omicron represented 89.1% of the cases, with 10.7% of the cases of the delta variant, once dominant.