Coronavirus pandemic ‘nowhere near over’: WHO

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, the World Health Organization chief said on Tuesday, cautioning against a narrative that the fast-spreading Omicron variant is risk-free.

This pandemic is nowhere near over, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters from the WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The UN health agency chief warned against dismissing as mild the coronavirus variant Omicron, which has spread like wildfire around the globe since it was first detected in southern Africa in November.

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is much more contagious than previous strains but seems to cause less serious disease.

The WHO has warned that the sheer number of people infected will mean many people are still falling seriously ill and dying.

An exponential rise in cases, regardless of the severity of the individual variants, leads to an inevitable increase in hospitalizations and deaths, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told Tuesday’s press conference.

“Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities.”

ARR