The World Health Organisation (WHO) boss, Tedros Ghebreyesus, has warned countries that it is too early for them to either declare victory over Covid-19 or give up attempts to halt transmission.
Talking to reporters, Ghebreyesus said: “It is premature for any country to either surrender or to declare victory. This virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes.
His comments followed Denmark’s lifting all of its domestic Covid curbs despite record numbers of cases of the milder Omicron variant, with several other countries eying similar moves.
Tedros said: “We’re concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary.
“We are not calling for any country to return to so-called lockdown,” Tedros said, adding though that “we are calling on all countries to protect their people using every tool in the toolkit, not vaccines alone”.
The WHO head further stressed the need to continue tracking emerging variants, including the Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.
“This virus will continue to evolve, which is why we call on countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing,” he said. “We can’t fight this virus if we don’t know what it’s doing.”
