A top World Health Organisation (WHO) official on Sunday said that while the Omicron variant is less severe than Delta, it is still a dangerous virus. WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, Maria van Kerkhove said that vaccination is incredibly protective against severe disease, deaths and does prevent some infections and onward transmissions.
However, she noted that vaccination alone cannot protect against the virus. People need to protect themselves against exposures through physical distancing, wearing of a well-fitted mask over the nose and mouth and handwashing, avoiding crowds, working from home, getting tested and seeking appropriate care when needed.
The top WHO official also said that it is important to reduce transmission of Omicron for a number of reasons. First, by getting infected there is always a risk that you can develop severe disease. And if someone has underlying conditions or if at an advanced age and is unvaccinated, could develop severe disease due to the high-risk factor.
Secondly, no one completely understands the impact of post-Covid condition or long Covid. So people who are infected with the virus are at the risk of developing longer-term consequences. There is a lot to understand about this. The risk of developing post-Covid condition is dependent on your risk of getting infected in the first place.
Thirdly, Maria van Kerkhove says that a large number of cases are making it difficult for hospitals to operate, for services to be online, public transportation, making sure grocery stores are stocked, schools, etc. Lastly, she says that the more Omicron circulates, the more opportunities it has to change.
“So this virus is circulating at an incredibly intense level around the world for a number of reasons. But the more the virus circulates, the more opportunities the virus has to change,” Maria van Kerkhove adds. “Omicron is not the last variant that you will hear us discuss and the possibility of future emergence of variants of concern is very real,” she warned.
