Omicron continues to sweep the world, narrative that it is `mild` is misleading, warns WHO

The World Health Organization informed that last week, there were more than 18 million reported cases.

New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday (January 18, 2022) warned that Omicron continues to sweep the world and said that the narrative this variant of Covid-19 is 'mild' is 'misleading'.

While addressing a media briefing on Covid-19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed that last week, there were more than 18 million reported cases.

"The number of deaths remains stable for the moment but we are concerned about the impact Omicron is having on already exhausted health workers and overburdened health systems," he said.

Ghebreyesus added that in some countries, coronavirus cases seem to have peaked, which gives hope that the worst of this latest wave is done with, 'but no country is out of the woods yet'.

"I remain particularly concerned about many countries that have low vaccination rates, as people are many times more at risk of severe illness and death if they’re unvaccinated," he expressed.

Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths

The WHO Chief stated that Omicron may be less severe, on average of course, but the 'narrative that it is mild disease is misleading', hurts the overall response and costs more lives. 

"Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities," he said.

Ghebreyesus said that the virus is circulating 'far too intensely' with many still vulnerable.

Pandemic nowhere near over 

The WHO Director-General warned that this pandemic is nowhere near over and with the incredible growth of Omicron globally, new variants are likely to emerge, which is why tracking and assessment remain critical.

He said that Covid-19 vaccines may be less effective at preventing infection and transmission of Omicron than they were for previous variants, but they still are exceptionally good at preventing serious disease and death.

"New formulations of vaccines are being developed and assessed for how they perform against Omicron and other strains," he added.

Ghebreyesus said that we need to make sure we share current vaccines equitably and we develop distributed manufacturing around the world. 

"We can only beat this virus if we work together and share health tools equitably. It’s really that simple," he added.

Meanwhile, as per WHO's weekly epidemiological update on Covid-19, globally, the number of new cases increased in the past week (10-16 January 2022), while the number of new deaths remained similar to that of the previous week. 

Across the six WHO regions, over 18 million new cases were reported this week, a 20% increase, as compared to the previous week. Over 45 000 new deaths were also reported. 

The South-East Asia region reported the largest increase in new cases last week (145%), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean Region (68%). New weekly deaths increased in the South-East Asia Region (12%) and Region of the Americas (7%) while remaining approximately the same as the previous week in the other regions.

As of January 16, over 323 million confirmed cases and over 5.5 million deaths have been reported worldwide.