WHO warns of troubling Covid-19 trends in coming months, says ‘closely monitoring new Omicron variant…’
Omicron subvariant is on the rise. Small numbers of the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant have also now been detected in 11 countries, Tedros said.
The WHO is "monitoring this variant closely to assess its transmissibility and potential impact," he added. Preliminary data suggests that existing vaccines will give protection against BA.2.86, Van Kerkhove said.
One of WHO's biggest concerns was how few at-risk people had recently received a Covid jab, Tedros said, calling for the vulnerable not to wait to get a booster dose. "The increase in hospitalisations and deaths shows that Covid-19 is here to stay, and that we will continue to need tools to fight it," Tedros said.
Last week, the WHO announced that a global knowledge-sharing platform about Covid called C-TAP had secured three new licensing agreements to transfer vaccine technologies. (With inputs from AFP)
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