Geneva. The World Health Organization (WHO) advised against traveling to people at risk yesterday, November 30, but estimated that the travel bans imposed by the countries “will not prevent” the spread of the new variant of the omicron coronavirus.
“General travel bans will not prevent the international spread” of this mutation, the WHO estimated in a technical document, although it recommended “to people who are not in good health or who are at risk of developing a serious form” of Covid-19 to “postpone the trip.”
Faced with the fears raised by the new strain, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for “calm” and urged the member states to respond “rationally” and “proportionally”.
The head of the institution said he understood “the concern of all countries to protect their citizens” but expressed concern about the fact that several countries “implement general and brutal measures that are neither based on evidence nor effective in themselves. and that they will only aggravate inequalities. “
Since South Africa reported the appearance of this variant last week, many countries closed their borders to people from southern Africa, sparking outrage in the region.
These measures “may have a negative impact on global health efforts during a pandemic by discouraging countries from reporting and sharing epidemiological and sequencing data,” warned WHO.
Several laboratories, such as Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) are working on new versions of the anticovid vaccine specific to the new strain.
Global fear
Canada has banned travelers from Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt since yesterday, bringing the number of African countries restricted by Ottawa to 10.
Since yesterday, the British must wear the mask mandatory in public transport and in commerce. In addition, the United Kingdom tightened the measures to enter the country.
So did Japan, yesterday it detected the first case of omicron in its territory, in a man who returned from Namibia. On Monday, the archipelago announced border restrictions and banned all non-resident foreigners from entering.
The Spanish government announced yesterday that it will suspend flights from several southern African countries from tomorrow until December 15 to “limit the spread” of the variant.
In France, health authorities recommended vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11 who are at risk of a severe form of Covid-19.
No variant of Covid-19 has caused such concern since the delta emergency, which is currently the dominant one and is highly contagious.
Fear runs fast in the world.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx