On the next COVID variants, a top World Health Organisation (WHO) official said that ‘variants are the wild card’ but the next one will take some time to get there. Again sounding an alarm regarding Omicron, WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove asserted that it is not the last variant of concern and currently, the UN health agency is tracking four its different versions.
"We know a lot about this virus, but we don't know everything. And quite frankly, the variants are the wild card. So we are tracking this virus in real time as it mutates as it changes…But this virus has a lot of room to move," she said.
"Omicron is the latest variant of concern. It will not be the last variant of concern that WHO will speak about. The next one, you know, that will come hopefully, it will take some time to get there. But with the level of intensity of spread, the possibility that we will have other variants is really high," she said.
"So we need to ensure that we again, not only increase vaccination coverage, but we also take measures to reduce the spread," she added.
In a similar session last month, Van Kerkhove had explained that the next Covid variant will definitely be more contagious than omicron, but the real question is whether or not it will be more deadly.
Omicron and its subvariants
Currently, under the umbrella of ‘Omicron’, WHO is monitoring as many four subvariants - BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3.
"BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world," Van Kerkhove said.
According to the UN health agency’s weekly epidemiological report, released on Tuesday, the Omicron variant is increasingly dominant - making up nearly 97 per cent of all cases.
"The prevalence of the Omicron variant has increased globally and is now detected in almost all countries. However, many of the countries which reported an early rise in the number of cases due to the Omicron variant have now reported a decline in the total number of new cases since the beginning of January 2022," it said.
(With inputs from agencies)