Scientists yet to find solution to Omicron – WHO

Director general of WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said It’s scientist are yet to find solution to Omicron.
He made this known on Tuesday saying, “We don’t yet know whether Omicron is associated with more transmission, more severe disease, more risk of reinfections, or more risk of evading vaccines.
Scientists at WHO and around the world are working urgently to answer these questions.”

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Since the emergence of the Omicron variant, lots questions are being raised as to whether the virus is more transmissible and 11whether the existing vaccines is able to protect against the virus.

A recall that the World Health Organisation -WHO last week said its scientists and other scientists around the world were working urgently to answer the questions that have come up from the discovery of the new variant.

Ghebreyesus said “We don’t yet know whether Omicron is associated with more transmission, more severe disease, more risk of reinfections, or more risk of evading vaccines. Scientists at WHO and around the world are working urgently to answer these questions.”

Meanwhile, the minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said even though Omicron has been classified as a variant of concern, no serious illness, admission or emergency has been recorded from the variant.

“We have no report of serious illness, what the virologists say and what the clinicians see are different things. Even in the UK, they have not seen any serious illness,” he said.

On whether two vaccine shots can protect against the virus, director general of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said the available vaccines can be 80 per cent efficacious against new variant of COVID-19 virus particularly the recently discovered Omicron variant.

However, alot of Nigerians still believe that COVID-19 does not exist in the country. Some say that the claims that Omicron has been detected in the country is an avenue for some agencies and committees to get more money.
A civil servant in Abuja, Mr Paul Okechukwu, said “If you think that COVID-19 will end in Nigeria, even if it ends in other parts of the country, you are deceiving yourself. Those making fortune from this pandemic will never allow it to end, they will always come up with claims to remain relevant and continue to make money from it.

A public health physician, Dr. Ifeanyi Ani, told me that it is not certain yet if this current variant is more transmissible.
“Though the WHO has classified it as a virus of concern, it has not yet given any reason for more concern because since it’s emergence, we’ve not recorded cases of people requiring oxygen and ventilator, so I think it’s not complicated as we think.”

Ani, however, urged Nigerians to continue to adhere to prevention protocols, saying prevention is cheaper than cure.

However, as at Tuesday last week , the NCDC confirmed three additional cases of Omicron variant (B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2) in the country.

The Centre said the three additional cases and the initial three cases were detected in persons with recent travel history to South Africa in November.

NCDC has therefore urged Nigerians to take personal and collective responsibility to ensure the safety of all Nigerians.

Okwuego.O/LHN