Risk for the Omicron variant remains “very high”, says the WHO

The risk associated with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus remains very high, with new records of Covid-19 infections registered last week, the World Health Organization (WHO).

“More than 21 million new cases have been reported, the highest number of weekly cases since the start of the pandemic,” the WHO said in its weekly Covid-19 epidemiological report.

The agency noted that the number of new cases increased by 5% over the past week to Sunday, compared to a 20% increase the previous week.

“A slower increase in the incidence of cases has been observed worldwide,” the WHO said.

Also nearly 50,000 new deaths were reporteda figure similar to the previous week, according to the WHO.

He pointed out that the omicron variant is still the dominant one in the world.

“The current epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by the dominance of the Omicron variant on a global scale, the declining prevalence of the delta variant, and a very low circulation of the alpha, beta and gamma variants, “said the WHO. said. .

“Countries that had a rapid increase in omicron cases in November and December 2021 have either started to see declines in cases,” it added.

However, he said, “based on current evidence, the overall risk associated with the Omicron variant remains very high.”

He specified that in the order of samples collected in the last 30 days, Omicron represented 89.1% of the cases, with 10.7% of cases of the delta variant, once dominant.