The Omicron coronavirus variant is “already all over the place” and journey bans is not going to cease its unfold, the World Well being Group’s high Europe official has mentioned, because the archbishop of Canterbury known as for the scrapping of a “journey apartheid”.
As mounting numbers of instances are detected and proof suggests the Omicron variant transmits sooner than Delta, 43 international locations within the European area have imposed journey restrictions.
However Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, mentioned bans on incoming flights didn’t work and have been too late “as a result of Omicron is already all over the place”. “Omicron is in sight and on the rise and we’re proper to be involved and cautious,” he mentioned. On the similar time, he added, vaccines, masks, air flow and coverings have been one of the simplest ways to curb coronavirus – not journey restrictions.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, additionally backed calls to scrap journey restrictions amid criticism of the UK’s pink checklist ban of 11 African international locations, including that sharing vaccines with different international locations was “the one route out of this pandemic”.
Writing on Twitter, Welby mentioned: “We should discover honest and efficient approaches for many who are vaccinated and examined to enter the UK. I agree with the Nigerian Excessive Commissioner to the UK – we can not have ‘journey apartheid’.
“It is usually morally improper – and self-defeating – successfully to punish different nations for being clear after they uncover new Covid variants.”
Kluge mentioned the proof to date on Omicron was preliminary and there was no definitive proof on how properly vaccines would defend folks. “It has but to be seen how and whether or not the newest Covid-19 variant of concern, Omicron, will probably be extra transmissible and extra extreme,” he mentioned.
He mentioned there have been “5 pandemic stabilisers to maintain mortality down”. They’re rising vaccination charges; administering boosters to essentially the most susceptible; doubling mask-wearing charges indoors; ventilating crowded areas; and adopting “rigorous therapeutic protocols for extreme instances”.
Kluge mentioned there was a must keep away from each college closures and residential studying. He additionally mentioned that, as college holidays method, “we should acknowledge that kids contaminate their dad and mom and grandparents at house, with a 10-times elevated threat for these adults to develop extreme illness, be hospitalised or die when non-vaccinated”.
He mentioned: “The usage of masks and air flow, and common testing, must be an ordinary in any respect major colleges and vaccinating kids must be mentioned and regarded nationally, as a part of college safety measures.
“Vaccination of youthful kids not solely reduces their position in Covid-19 transmission but in addition protects them from paediatric severity, whether or not related to lengthy Covid or multi-system inflammatory syndromes.”
Kluge additionally mentioned vaccines ought to solely be mandated at a inhabitants degree as a final resort, including that no matter measures international locations have been taking in opposition to Delta would additionally present profit in opposition to Omicron.
Dr Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer on the WHO regional workplace for Europe, mentioned that though journey bans “could also be simply accessible when it comes to political decision-making, they aren’t efficient in stopping unfold of illness”.
Smallwood mentioned Delta remained dominant for the time being however which may change. “Clearly Omicron has demonstrated a capability to unfold quickly inside a Delta context and inside our extremely vaccinated context, significantly in gatherings the place Covid-19 likes to unfold anyway, so Christmas events, office gatherings, conferences – we’ve seen these clusters of Omicron seem in international locations throughout the area.
“So there will probably be additional unfold. The extent and the rapidity of the pace of that unfold continues to be a query and we’ll discover out in a couple of extra weeks.”
