Omicron especially dangerous for unvaccinated—WHO

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is dangerous—and especially so for those who have not been vaccinated against the disease, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.

"While Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, it remains a dangerous virus—particularly for those who are unvaccinated," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. "More transmission means more hospitalizations, more deaths, more people off work—including teachers and health workers—and more risk of another variant emerging that is even more transmissible and more deadly than Omicron.""Learning to live with this virus does not mean we can, or should, accept this number of deaths," he said.Tedros wanted every country to have 10% of their population vaccinated by the end of September 2021, 40% by the end of December, and 70% by mid-2022.

But WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said:"This is not the time to declare this is a welcome virus."Maria Van Kerkhove the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said it was difficult to predict the road ahead and Omicron was unlikely to be the last variant preoccupying minds at the UN health agency.

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