Covid pandemic is not over, Omicron is highly virulent-WHO

The World Health Organization on Saturday said misinformation about the pandemic is creating confusion among people. Omicron is mild, the pandemic is over, and this is the last variant -- all these are misinformation, WHO's Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said that the Omicron variant is highly virulent and with the emergence of new strains of the variant the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases is a cause of concern. Other factors like lifting of the mask mandates, lifting of restrictions and the social distancing rules not being followed are also being pegged as major contributors giving rise in coronavirus cases. The surge is being driven by a more transmissible Omicron BA.2 variant, it is more readily transmissable than the original BA.1 strain."We have huge amounts of misinformation that's out there. The misinformation that Omicron is mild. Misinformation that the pandemic is over. Misinformation that this is the last variant that we will have to deal with. This is really causing a lot of confusion," Maria said.

What happens when #COVID19 variants combine? Dr @mvankerkhove explains ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/J59DpQaSHB

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 19, 2022

Maria said that countries which are seeing a huge number of mortalities than previous waves are those which have not vaxxed its people, especially the vulnerable group of people. An AFP estimate has recorded a 35 per cent weekly increase of Covid cases in France and 42 per cent in Italy.