WHO: Vaccination of 70% of population in each country will reduce impact of omicron

As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to surge worldwide, the UN health agency on Tuesday said that more needed to be done to help all countries receive lifesaving coronavirus jabs as quickly as possible, Report informs.

The development comes as a senior World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist repeated the agency's message that countries could not "boost" their way out of the pandemic, while the Omicron variant was transmitting so "intensely", just as the Delta variant has done.

"In the context of intense social mixing, in the context of limited use of proven public health measures, in the context of limited vaccination coverage globally…those are conditions that will allow any variant, any virus, to thrive," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove told BBC radio.

Before the holiday period, 128 countries reported that they had identified Omicron, the WHO said, during a scheduled press briefing in Geneva.

WHO epidemiologist Dr. Abdi Mahamud told journalists that there was still not enough data available to say whether the Omicron variant is less severe than other coronavirus strains.

"So the main message is, if you are vaccinated, you are protected, but if you are vulnerable or if you have not been vaccinated, this Omicron - however light or mild it may be for others - it could hit you very hard," he said. "So, vaccination is very critical."

The WHO epidemiologist noted that an increasing number of studies seemed to show that the Omicron variant appeared to affect mostly the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms.

Other strains impact the lungs and could cause severe pneumonia, he said, but further research was needed to prove this Omicron assessment.

"The challenge has not been the vaccine, but the vaccination of the most vulnerable populations," he said before urging more countries to push for 70% vaccine coverage as soon as possible.

Without this level of vaccine protection, the virus "replicates in an environment that's overcrowded, not ventilated, and not vaccinated," Dr. Mahamud continued, describing these types of settings as ideal places for COVID-19 to mutate.