Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec.30: The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that combining the more transmissible Omicron with the currently circulating Delta variants could result in a “tsunami of cases,” putting enormous strain on national health systems.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference that he’s “very concerned” that “Omicron being more transmissible, circulating at the same time as Delta — is leading to a tsunami of cases.”
“This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods,” he added.
He went on to say that the demand comes from not only new Covid-19 patients needing hospitalisation, but also a huge number of health staff becoming ill.
Tedros expressed his dissatisfaction with a recent revelation that Omicron was producing milder or less severe ailments, according to the Xinhua news agency.
“But we are undermining the other side at the same time — it could be dangerous… we shouldn’t undermine the bad news just focusing on the good news,” he said.
“We don’t want people to be complacent, saying this is not severe, this is mild. And we have to be very careful in that narrative,” he added.
Though Omicron appears to be more transmissible, has a shorter incubation period, and causes a mild sickness, it is based on the mostly youthful population that the variant has been infecting, according to Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program.
Ryan said he’s “a little cautious to make positive forecasts until we know how well the vaccination protection is going to work in the older and more vulnerable populations” because the Omicron wave hasn’t been fully established in the general population.
“I think it’s critical that we keep restricting transmission of both forms to the bare minimum in the coming weeks,” he added.