The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged people to reconsider their travel plans or to postpone or reschedule the same in the wake of the Sars-CoV-2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) until further information.
“People who have not been fully vaccinated or do not have proof of previous Sars-CoV-2 infection and are at increased risk of developing severe disease and death, including people of 60 years of age or older or those with comorbidities which pose increased risk of severe Covid-19 such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes are advised to postpone travel to areas with community transmission,” the WHO has said.
This announcement comes in the wake of Japan asking airlines to stop taking new incoming flight bookings over concerns about the new variant, and as the first case was reported in Saudi Arabia.
WHO has designated the variant B.1.1.529 as a Variant Of Concern, named Omicron, on the basis of the advice from WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (hereafter referred to as TAG-VE) on November 26, 2021.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Covid-19 virtual press briefing on Wednesday, Dr Ahmed al Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said two years into the Covid-19, the pandemic continues to take a toll on people’s lives and health across the world, spreading fear and frustration and that the arrival of the new variant is of concern.
“The emergence of the new variant of concern ‘Omicron’ has aggravated the situation and poses potential threat to the hard-won gains of the past two years,” Dr Ahmed said.
He said that the recent trends of Covid-19 spread in the region are mixed. While some countries have documented recent decline in cases and deaths, nine and three countries recorded increase in cases and deaths over the past week.
“As of November 29, more than 16.7 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and more than 309,500 deaths were reported across the region,” Dr Ahmed added.
