GENEVA (Reuters) – Governments should urgently reassess their national responses to COVID-19 and accelerate their vaccination programmes to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
The global spread of the variant suggests it could have a major impact on the pandemic, and the time to contain it is now, before more Omicron patients are hospitalised, he told a news briefing.
“We call on all countries to increase surveillance, testing and sequencing,” he said. “… Any complacency now will cost lives.”
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by John Stonestreet; Editing by Alison Williams)
