{"id":55484,"date":"2021-12-16T16:35:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=55484"},"modified":"2021-12-16T16:03:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:03:27","slug":"omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who","title":{"rendered":"Omicron variant spreading very fast, now in 77 countries \u2013 WHO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than other variants as it is now present in 77 countries.<\/p>\n

WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a news briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva that it would be a mistake to dismiss the COVID-19 strain as mild.<\/p>\n

\u201cOmicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. We\u2019re concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director-general urged countries not to underestimate the new variant.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to be very clear: vaccines alone will not get any country out of this crisis. Countries can \u2013 and must \u2013 prevent the spread of Omicron with measures that work today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghebreyesus warned that making choices about strategies to halt the pandemic was the wrong approach: \u201cIt\u2019s not vaccines instead of distancing. It\u2019s not vaccines instead ventilation or hand hygiene. Do it all. Do it consistently. Do it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said in the past ten weeks, the international vaccine rollout initiative, COVAX, has shipped more vaccines than in the first nine months of the year combined, with most countries using vaccines as fast as they get them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA small group of countries are facing challenges rolling out vaccines and scaling up rapidly, and WHO and our partners are working closely with those countries to overcome bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we expect further improvements in supply, there are no guarantees, and the hard-won gains we have made are fragile,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ghebreyesus said: \u201cevolving evidence suggests a small decline in the effectiveness of vaccines against severe disease and death\u201d.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than other variants as it is now present in 77 countries. WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a news briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva that it would be a mistake to dismiss the COVID-19 strain as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1438,29,28,26],"tags":[1570,2140,254,6039,728],"class_list":["post-55484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-coronavirus-in-nigeria","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-nigeria","tag-omicron","tag-who"],"yoast_head":"\nOmicron variant spreading very fast, now in 77 countries \u2013 WHO - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than other variants as it is ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Omicron variant spreading very fast, now in 77 countries \u2013 WHO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than other variants as it is ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-16T15:35:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61bb551f77eaf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Omicron variant spreading very fast, now in 77 countries \u2013 WHO\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-16T15:35:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who\"},\"wordCount\":319,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/img-61bb551f77eaf.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Nigeria\",\"Omicron\",\"WHO\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Coronavirus in Nigeria\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/omicron-variant-spreading-very-fast-now-in-77-countries-who\",\"name\":\"Omicron variant spreading very fast, now in 77 countries \u2013 WHO - 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