The WHO Says Omicron Is A 'Very High Global Risk' & Here's How Far The Variant Has Spread
"We should be wide awake to the threat of this virus."
Every country in the world should be watching out for the Omicron variant.
That’s according to the latest update from the World Health Organization, which warned on Monday that the newest variant of COVID-19 poses a risk to everyone, and that stopping travellers will not be enough to keep it out.
“The overall global risk related to the new variant […] is assessed as very high,” the WHO said in a technical briefing.
"We should be wide awake to the threat of this virus," WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a meeting about the new variant.
Omicron started setting off alarm bells in South Africa last Wednesday, and in less than a week it’s become a named variant of concern on the WHO's global watch list.
U.K. officials have said that the virus seem to be more transmissible than Delta and that it might be able to overcome vaccines, although the WHO says more study is needed to confirm that info.
"If another major surge of COVID-19 takes place driven by Omicron, consequences may be severe," the WHO said.
Many countries have slammed their borders shut against travellers from infected areas, although Dr. Tedros said the virus will "inevitably land on their shores."
Cases had been detected in over a dozen countries on five continents as of Monday morning.
The locations with reported cases are:
- Canada
- South Africa
- Botswana
- Australia
- Belgium
- Italy
- The United Kingdom
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Hong Kong
- Israel
Officials are worried about this variant because it’s heavily mutated, meaning it has a lot of new traits that set it apart from other COVID variants such as Delta. Delta was the last variant to go global earlier this year, after it proved to spread more quickly that the first version of the virus.
“Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic,” the WHO said.
Spike proteins are the spiky bits on the outside of the coronavirus, and it uses these bits to break into your cells and infect you. Vaccines teach your body to fight those spikes off, but there's concern that Omicron spikes are mutated enough to get through those defences.
Still, the WHO says vaccines likely still offer some protection against severe disease and death related to Omicron.
No deaths have been linked to Omicron as of Monday morning, the WHO says.