Ómicron: WHO criticizes “baseless” measures taken to stop the new variant of the coronavirus

The general director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, today regretted that some governments have taken “strong measures that are not based on evidence and are not effective by themselves” in the face of the omicron variant of coronavirus, actions that “will only aggravate inequality.”

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In his weekly meeting with representatives of the member states of the WHO, and after dozens of countries have stopped their air links with southern Africa, Tedros He said he understood “the concern of all countries to protect a variant that we still do not fully understand”, but called for greater “rationality”.

“We ask all Member States to adopt rational and proportional risk reduction measures, in line with International Health Regulations,” said the Director General, after underlining that for now “there are more questions than answers” regarding the new variant. of the coronavirus.

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Tedros made these statements after many countries have suspended their flights with South Africa and Botswana, places where the omicron variant was first detected, as well as with other destinations in southern Africa, something against which the affected governments protested in the current extraordinary assembly of the WHO.

“I am grateful to Botswana and South Africa for detecting, sequencing and reporting the new variant so quickly, and it is deeply concerning that those countries are being punished by others after doing the right thing.” assured the Ethiopian expert.

Tedros added that the WHO he closely follows the development of the omicron, whose emergence “is not a surprise, because viruses develop variants”, and reiterated that “the longer we allow the pandemic to continue, the more opportunities it will have to do so.”

Not addressing inequality in the distribution of vaccines – Africa, the continent where omicron has emerged, has the lowest vaccination rate – or not applying public health measures are the factors that will help the virus to evolve in new variants, he stated.

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