Adequate Vaccination and Screening: The “Toxic Cocktail” for the WHO

The world is facing a “toxic cocktail” due to insufficient COVID-19 vaccine coverage and screening level, the WHO chief warned on Wednesday, promising it a favorable ground for variants.

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“The end of the pandemic is not a question of luck, it is a question of choice,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanam Ghebreas told a news conference.

“Globally, we have a toxic mix of low vaccine coverage and very little screening, the perfect recipe for reproduction and enhancement variants,” he warned.

The warning came in November when a new omicron variant of the coronavirus appeared. There has never been a variant that has caused so much concern in the world since the emergence of Delta.

According to the WHO, Omicron – also known as B.1.1.529 – “was first reported to the WHO by South Africa on November 24, 2021, but the first laboratory-certified case was identified from a sample taken on November 9. .

The WHO last Friday qualified Omicron as a variant of “anxiety”, the highest level.

Omicron is of concern to experts because it has many mutations that make it more infectious and more resistant to vaccines. Studies are underway to find out if this really happened and to what extent, but the first results should only be available in the coming weeks.

“At least 23 of the five countries in the six WHO areas have now reported omicran cases and we expect that number to increase,” Tedros said.

So far there are four other types of concern: Delta, which represents almost all cases worldwide, alpha, beta and gamma.