The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries to
prepare for the possible spread of Omicron, the new COVID-19 variant.
Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesperson, who spoke in Geneva
on Friday, said it would take two weeks before more is known about how
transmissible and how dangerous the variant is.
Lindmeier advised against the implementation of blanket
travel bans, except for countries whose health systems are unable to withstand
a surge in infections.
“It is much more preferred to prepare your country, your
health system for possible incoming cases because we can be pretty sure that
this Omicron variant will spread around,” he said.
“This is how this
virus behaves and we will most likely not be able to keep it out of individual
countries.”
The WHO official also cautioned against decisions that are
induced by fear and not backed by scientific research and evidence.
“Let’s not get deterred right now, let us first get as much
information as possible to make the correct risk assessment based on the
information that we will have and then let’s move on,” he said.
“Let’s not get
completely worried or confused by individual information which are all
individually important, but which need to be brought together in order to
assess together.”
The development comes as the WHO said it is sending a
technical team to South Africa’s Gauteng province to monitor Omicron and help
with contact tracing, amid a spike in coronavirus reinfections in the country.
“The detection and timely reporting of the new variant by
Botswana and South Africa has bought the world time,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO
regional director for Africa, had said on Thursday.
“We have a window of opportunity but must act quickly and
ramp up detection and prevention measures.
“Countries must
adjust their COVID-19 response and stop a surge in cases from sweeping across
Africa and possibly overwhelming already-stretched health facilities.”
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