WHO: 500 highly transmissible Omicron sub-lineages circulating
(VOVWORLD) - The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Friday that there are now more than 500 highly transmissible Omicron sub-lineages circulating – all able to get around built-up immunity more easily, even if they tended to be less severe than previous variants.
 COVID-19 patients are treated in a hospital in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, France (Photo: AFP/ VNA) |
Mr. Tedros said at least 90% of the world’s population now has some level of immunity to Sars-CoV-2, due to prior infection or vaccination.
However, he said, the emergency phase of the pandemic is not over because gaps in surveillance, testing, sequencing and vaccination are continuing to create the perfect conditions for a new variant of concern to emerge that could cause significant mortality.