Ómicron: started a “race against the clock” to stop the new variant of the coronavirus, warns the head of the European Commission

The President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, declared this Sunday in Riga that the new omicron variant of coronavirus opened a “race against time” and stressed the need to “buy time” by speeding up vaccination and reducing contacts.

“We take this omicron very seriously. We are now in a race against time, because we do not know everything about this variant, but it is a variant of concern “he said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Latvian President Krisjanis Karins.

He indicated that science needs two to three weeks to have a “complete picture” of “the characteristics of the mutations” of this new variant.

For this reason, he added, it is necessary to “use time” to take precautionary actions, noting that the “highest priority” now is to reduce contacts, vaccinate and administer booster doses “as much as possible” and comply with the regulations of social distancing, hygiene and use of a mask

Likewise, he stressed the importance of sequencing and tracking contacts where contagions are detected.

He also referred to the third contract that the EC signed in the summer with the German biotech BioNTech and the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer to reserve 1.8 billion additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“In this regard, we are safe,” he said.

I add that the contract includes a clause in the event of the appearance of a variant that escapes the effectiveness of the current vaccine and according to which BionTech / Pfizer undertakes to adapt its formula to the new mutation within a period of one hundred days.

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