‘Omicron’ May Be A Wake-Up Call, Says WHO Chief Scientist

New Delhi: World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that the new COVID-19 variant may act as a “wake-up call” for COVID appropriate behaviour in India.

Emphasizing the need to be careful and keep using masks, the chief scientist said that masks have been called “vaccines in your pocket” and have been found to be highly effective, especially in indoor settings, reported NDTV.

Scientists suggest full inoculation of all adults, avoiding mass gatherings, wider genome sequencing, and closely monitoring any unusual uptick in cases on fighting new variant of concern ‘Omicron’.

“We need a science-based strategy to battle ‘Omicron’,” she said.

Swaminathan added that this variant could be more transmissible than Delta though one can’t say anything authoritatively yet. We will know more about the strain in a few days, according to Swaminathan.

“We need more studies to pinpoint the new variant’s characteristics,” Swaminathan said.

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