‘Too early’ to say Omicron has peaked, WHO warns

A World Health Officer (WHO) spokesperson has warned declarations that Omicron has passed its global peak are premature.

WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris says it’s “too early” to say the beginning of the end of the pandemic has begun.

“What we are entering is, certainly, a different phase,” she told Ross and Russel.

“We’re seeing it rise very rapidly, we’re seeing an enormous number of cases — like last we we saw 23 million cases … but sadly 50,000 people lost their lives last week, so we’re still in the middle of a really, really terrible outbreak..

While cases have come down in South Africa — where the Omicron variant originated — and a similar trend is now emerging in some European countries, Dr Harris says “we can’t necessarily say it will happen in every country”.

But, looking forward, she “certainly thinks” the situation will be better when the world faces its next new virus.

“We’ve handled this better than humanity has ever handled a new virus appearing. We’ve developed vaccines within a year of knowing this existed,” she said.

“We … as a species have done very well. What we have to keep on doing, and do better, is working together to ensure that every human on the planet gets access to the tools that we know can stop this virus.”

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