WHO expects more information on Omicron variant within few days

GENEVA, Dec 1, Reuters - The World Health Organization expects to have more information on the transmissibility of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus within a few days, according to a technical lead on COVID- 19, Maria van Kerkhove, in a briefing on Wednesday.

That was faster than the weeks that the WHO had predicted last week that it would take to assess the data available on the variant after designating it as a variant of concern with its highest rating.

Some of the questions that still need to be answered are whether or not the variant is more transmissible or evades vaccines.

Vaccine developers have said it will take about two weeks to assess whether their shots are effective against it.

Van Kerkhove said that the new variant, which was first reported in southern Africa, may be more transmissible than the dominant Delta variant. She said it was not yet known if Omicron makes people more ill.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the agency believes that existing COVID-19 vaccines will work against the variant.

Mike Ryan, WHO's emergency director, said the agency's opposition to the blanket bans on flights to and from southern Africa that have been imposed by Britain and other countries, and that it would not prevent the spread of the variant:

It's not possible to put a hermetic seal on some countries. I can't see the logic from an epidemiological or public health perspective.