(Geneva) The Omicron variant is spreading “at a rate we’ve never seen with any other variant,” the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday, calling for all anti-COVID-19 tools to be used to prevent health systems from being quickly overwhelmed as the holiday season approaches.
In Europe, the Netherlands announced that schools will close from December 20, a week before the start of the Christmas holidays, and extended current health restrictions until January 14, including the closure of non-essential stores, bars and restaurants every day between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.
“This is obviously not the happy message we were hoping for as Christmas approaches. But this is not a surprise ”, underlined the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
“77 countries have now reported cases of Omicron, but the reality is that Omicron is likely to be found in most countries even though it has not yet been detected,” said the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference in Geneva.
“We are concerned that people view Omicron as benign. […] Even if Omicron causes less severe symptoms, the number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems, ”he added.
According to Abdi Mahamud, incident manager at the WHO, the spread of the variant is such that it could become the majority in some European countries by mid-December, while they are still facing the impact of the disease. 5e wave of infection caused by the Delta variant.
Vaccine “inequity”
Many uncertainties still hang over the nature of this new variant which has plunged the planet into panic since it was detected in November by South Africa.
And the WHO further fears that the booster doses decided upon in many Western countries for adult populations will undermine vaccination in poor countries.
“WHO is not against booster doses. We are against vaccine inequity, said Dr.r Tedros. “It’s a question of prioritization. […] Giving booster doses to groups at low risk of serious illness or death simply endangers the lives of those at high risk who are still waiting for their first doses, ”he insisted.
He pointed out that 41 countries have still not succeeded in immunizing 10% of their population and 98 countries have not reached the 40% mark. “If we end the inequity, we end the pandemic. If we allow the inequity to continue, we allow the pandemic to move forward, ”he insisted.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo had previously warned of the consequences that the EU’s decision to mobilize its vaccines for recall campaigns could have for Africa.
New Pfizer tool
In several Western countries, the new restrictions go badly, including in the United Kingdom, yet faced with a “tidal wave” of cases and a first fatal case due to the Omicron variant.
The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson certainly succeeded on Tuesday evening in having its measures adopted in Parliament, but must now reckon with the sling of dozens of deputies of its very critical majority towards this new turn of the screw: wearing of the mask indoors, daily tests for contact cases, teleworking and compulsory health passport in major events.
The Omicron variant is believed to infect 200,000 people every day in the United Kingdom, one of the countries in Europe most affected by the pandemic with more than 146,500 deaths.
In France, where COVID-19 contamination has been at its highest since April, the government has reactivated several levers of mobilization and support for caregivers in the face of the fifth wave of COVID-19.
Faced with a “viral explosion” of COVID-19 while the resuscitation beds are full, the Mediterranean island of Corsica has called “doctors, nurses and nursing assistants”, whether they are “employees, liberal or retired », To strengthen hospitals.
On the medical front, encouraging news has come from Pfizer: the pharmaceutical giant has confirmed that its anti-COVID-19 pill reduces hospitalizations and deaths in people at risk by almost 90% when taken in the first days after onset of symptoms.
“This news provides another potentially powerful tool in our fight against the virus, including against the Omicron variant,” said US President Joe Biden, recalling that the United States had already ordered enough treatments for 10 million d ‘Americans.
And a study in South Africa also estimated that Pfizer’s vaccine was less effective overall against the Omicron variant, but still provided 70% protection against severe cases of the disease.
The pandemic has killed at least 5,311,914 people around the world since the end of 2019, according to an assessment established by AFP from official sources, Tuesday in the middle of the day. The United States is the most bereaved country with 798,713 dead, ahead of Brazil (616,878), India (475,888), Mexico (296,721) and Russia (291,749).