Infectious Disease Epidemiologist & COVID-19 Technical Lead at the World Health Organisation – Maria Van Kerkhove, warned the world about the COVID-19 pandemic, noting, there is a high time to do whatever it is takes for declining the transmission of the COVID-19. She further stated that unfortunately, “the virus is not done with us yet”.

“This virus continues to be dangerous. This virus transmits very efficiently between people, but there is a lot you can do. We need to drive transmission down”, Kerkhove cited.

Further emphasizing the significance of wearing a mask, Kerkhove stated that the three-layer high filtration masks are effective against preventing transmission of the Omicron Variant.

She further cited, “We’re not looking at revamping the strategy for COVID-19. What we’re looking for is adjusting it; given the massive economic livelihood toll & human toll this COVID-19 pandemic has taken, 68,000 people died last week from COVID. They don’t have the opportunity to move on”.

Speaking on Omicron, she further stated the condition as “dangerous”, and the declining transmissibility rate is the need of the hour, as if this does not happen, the world might witness more deaths, cases, hospitalizations, but more people will suffer post-pandemic impacts. She added that this scenario would make the situation worse.

“The World Health Organization is analyzing the decline slope of epidemic curves as a signal of Omicron reinfection with BA.2. However, it’s still too early to know if people can become reinfected”, Kerkhove stated.

She further underscored WHO is making sure that the vaccination coverage rate is increased.

“WHO is having an eye on the declining rate, which is different in different countries. We are monitoring whether the declining rate is sharp or is a bit slower, which depends on a number of several factors. The variants are the wildcards,” she further added.