WHO chief claims Omicron variant is more dangerous for unvaccinated people

Amid the rising concern of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the Omicron variant is more dangerous for those who are unvaccinated on Wednesday. As per the reports of ANI, Tedros said that while Omicron causes less severe sickness than Delta, it is still a hazardous virus. He also claimed that the Omicron variant is to blame for the massive increase in infections.

Talking about the vaccination rate of Africa, the WHO chief stated that more than 85% of Africans have yet to receive a single dose of vaccine. However, he also said that they are progressing as COVAX sent more than twice as many doses in December as it did in November, and they expect COVAX to send its 1 billionth vaccine dosage in the coming days, according to ANI.

Assisting the countries which have low vaccination rates

According to ANI, he further stated that they still have a long way to go to accomplish the goal of vaccinating 70% of the population in each country by the middle of this year. He went on to say that 90 countries have yet to reach the 40% vaccination target, with 36 of them having only vaccinated fewer than 10% of their people, according to ANI. He claimed that WHO and its partners are actively assisting the countries which have low vaccination rates in overcoming leadership and coordination constraints. He has repeatedly criticised the booster campaign as many countries still don't have vaccines.

Tedros also said that vaccines are quite successful in reducing the death rates and severity of coronavirus, but they don't completely prevent transmission. He continued by saying that more transmission means more hospitalisations, fatalities, and people out of work. He went on to say that the vast majority of patients admitted to hospitals aren't vaccinated. The global death rate has levelled off at around 50,000 fatalities each week. He stated that learning to live with this virus doesn't imply that people can or should accept this level of mortality.

Omicron had been found in 149 countries by January 6

Bruce Aylward, who is the WHO's lead on coronavirus tools, stated that wealthy countries had made it three times as difficult for low-income countries by exporting misinformation rather than vaccines, according to Today. WHO claims that Omicron had been found in 149 countries by January 6.

(Inputs from ANI)

Image: AP