The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is spreading faster than the Delta variant and causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan added that it would be “unwise” to conclude from early evidence that Omicron was a milder variant than previous ones.
“With the numbers going up, all health systems are going to be under strain,” Swaminathan told journalists in Geneva, Switzerland.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Omicron variant is successfully evading some immune responses, Swaminathan said, meaning that the booster programs being rolled out in many nations ought to be targeted toward people with weaker immune systems.
“There is now consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant and it is more likely people vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 could be infected or reinfected,” Tedros told the news conference.
Their comments echoed the findings of a study by Imperial College London, which last week said that the risk of reinfection was more than five times higher and Omicron has shown no sign of being milder than Delta.
However, WHO officials said that other forms of immunity vaccinations might prevent infection and disease.
While the antibody defenses from some actions have been undermined, there has been hope that T-cells, the second pillar of an immune response, can prevent severe disease by attacking infected human cells.
“Although we are seeing a reduction in the neutralization antibodies, almost all preliminary analysis shows T-cell mediated immunity remains intact, that is what we really require,” WHO expert Abdi Mahamud said.
However, highlighting how little is known about how to handle the Omicron variant that was only detected last month, Swaminathan said: “Of course there is a challenge, many of the monoclonals will not work with Omicron.”
She gave no details as she referred to the treatments that mimic natural antibodies in fighting off infections. Some drugmakers have suggested the same.
In the short term, Tedros said that holiday festivities would in many places lead to “increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths,” urging people to postpone gatherings.
“An event canceled is better than a life canceled,” he said.
However, the WHO team also offered some hope to a weary world facing the new wave that next year would be the year that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already killed more than 5.6 million people worldwide, would end.
It pointed to the development of second and third-generation vaccines, and the further development of antimicrobial treatments and other innovations.
“[We] hope to consign this disease to a relatively mild disease that is easily prevented, that is easily treated,” WHO head emergency expert Mike Ryan said. “If we can keep virus transmission to minimum, then we can bring the pandemic to an end.”
However, Tedros also said that China, where SARS-CoV-2 was first detected, must be forthcoming with data and information related to its origin to help the response going forward.
“We need to continue until we know the origins, we need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to [do] better in the future,” Tedros said.
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