The World Health Organization (WHO) has drawn attention to the increase in deaths from covid that has been registered globally in the last four weeks and has warned that the omicron variant has not yet reached its peak, so He has considered it premature for some countries to plan to lift all prevention measures at the same time.
People without masks shopping at a market in Copenhagen (Denmark). EFE/EPA/LISELOTTE SABROE
Several countries in Europe plan to rescind several or all of the measures recommended by the WHO to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus in the near future, but experts have asked not to fall into overconfidence since although omicron tends to cause a less serious disease, its contagion capacity is much higher than the previous variants.
This is the case of Denmark that since this Tuesday it has eliminated all the restrictions imposed during its fourth wave, considering that the omicron variant does not imply a “danger” for its health or its inhabitants and despite the high levels of incidence, 5,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Thus, it is no longer an obligation to wear masks indoors, restrictions on restaurants, cultural and social life have disappeared, clubs and large events reopen.
Denmark thus becomes the first country in the European Union (EU) to lift all measures against the pandemic, as happened last September, although a few months later it began to reintroduce them as a result of the spread of the omicron variant.
WHO calls for caution
In the last ten weeks, coinciding with the start of the spread of omicron, 90 million new confirmed cases of covid-19 have been registered, more than in all of 2020, and this trend has begun to be reflected in deaths.
“We ask for caution because many countries have not reached the omicron peak yet: Several still have low levels of vaccination, with very vulnerable individuals within their population, so this is not the time to lift all measures at once, but to do it progressively, little by little,” said the head of the technical team to fight the pandemic at the WHO, María Van Kerkhove.
“This virus is very dynamic and although we know a lot about it, we still don’t know everything,” he told a news conference from WHO headquarters in Geneva.
The director of health emergencies, Mike Ryan, seconded his colleague, pointing out that not all countries are in the same position in the face of the pandemic, as some have high vaccination coverage and strong health systems, while other countries are in the opposite situation.
“A country cannot blindly follow what the neighboring country is doing. Each case is different and you should not give in to political pressure either,” said Ryan, who considered that the current phase could be considered “transitional.”
Reduce excess optimism
WHO Director-General Tedros A.Dhanom Ghebreyesus, said that “more infections necessarily mean more deaths”, so he asked not to fall into the narrative that vaccination combined with a less serious variant (ómicron) makes prevention measures unnecessary, such as the use of a mask or the quarantine of contacts of confirmed cases.
He asked everyone to remember that the virus continues to evolve “in front of our eyes” and that the same will have to happen with vaccines because the variants that have appeared and the next ones that will emerge could evade the immunity generated by vaccines made from previous variants.
Tedros noted that the who is in ongoing consultation with the immunization scientific community to assess the need for a vaccine that is effective against a broader spectrum of coronavirus variants.
What is known about subvariant BA.2?
Van Kerkhove said that the evolution of the BA.2 subvariant, which arose from ómicron and belongs to “the same family”, is being closely followed, since it is not the only one, but it is the one that has attracted the most attention recently because its incidence has accelerated in several countries.
“There is not much information available on this sub-variant yet (…) but there is preliminary information indicating that it could have a slightly higher transmission capacity than the BA.1,” he said, referring to the first omicron sub-variant known.
“People need to be aware that this virus continues to circulate and evolve, so it is important that we continue to take steps to reduce our exposure to any variant,” she said.
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