The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries to prepare for the possible spread of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron
WHO spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, said this on Friday in Geneva.
He said it would take two weeks before more is known about how transmissible and how dangerous the variant is.
Some western countries have placed travel ban on about 10 African countries, including Nigeria, since the variant was discovered in South Africa late last month.
Lindmeier advised against the implementation of blanket travel bans by some western countries, except for countries whose health systems are unable to withstand a surge in infections.
“It is much more preferred to prepare your country, your health system for possible incoming cases because we can be pretty sure that this Omicron variant will spread around,” he said.
“This is how this virus behaves and we will most likely not be able to keep it out of individual countries.”
The WHO official also cautioned against decisions that are induced by fear and not backed by scientific research and evidence.
“Let’s not get deterred right now, let us first get as much information as possible to make the correct risk assessment based on the information that we will have and then let’s move on,” he said.
