Blanket travel bans will not prevent int'l spread of Omicron variant: WHO
Darpan News Desk IANS, 30 Nov, 2021 01:19 PM
Geneva, Nov30 (IANS) The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, even as dozens of countries have already introduced such restrictions.
Although Omicron has been labeled a "variant of concern" by the WHO, it said on Tuesday that blanket travel bans will only place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods, while also "disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data."
The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO by South Africa last week. So far, several countries and regions have confirmed cases of infection with Omicron. Dozens of countries have already tightened travel measures, and even suspended flights, Xinhua news agency reported.
At a member states session on the Omicron variant on Tuesday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked Botswana and South Africa for detecting and reporting this variant so rapidly. It is deeply worrying that these countries were being penalised by others for doing the right thing, he said.
He called the "blunt, blanket measures" introduced by some member states "not evidence-based or effective on their own." He urged countries to take "rational, proportional risk-reduction measures, in keeping with the international health regulations."
Meanwhile, the WHO advises that "persons who are unwell or at risk of developing severe Covid-19 disease and dying, including people 60 years of age or older or those with comorbidities such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes," should postpone travel plans.
It's also clear that people can infect animals. Pets such as cats, zoo animals such as gorillas and snow leopards and farmed mink can all be infected. Multiple cases have been reported, and evidence of changes in the viruses infecting mink have led to mass culls of those animals on fur farms, the report added.
6 teenagers were injured during a shooting incident at a park in Aurora in the US state of Colorado, police said. The shooting occurred at noon on Monday at Nome Park, which is near Aurora Central High School, Xinhua news agency quoted the Aurora Police Department as saying.
At least two students were killed and 10 others injured when a school van on Tuesday morning collided with a train while passing through an unmanned railway crossing in Sheikhupura city, Punjab province, reports Xinhua news agency
Further, the team found that Civets (Paguma larvata) carried the highest number of potentially high risk viruses. The cat-like carnivores have been known as potential reservoirs for coronavirus.
Two explosions occurred in the centre of Uganda's capital, where the Indian para-badminton team has gone to take part in an international tournament, but the shutters are safe. The blasts, which are reported to have occurred just 100 meters from the hotel the Indian team is staying in, have killed at least two people and set several cars on fire.
Pfizer Inc and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed public health organisation working to increase access to life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries, on Tuesday announced the signing of a voluntary license agreement for Pfizer's Covid-19 oral antiviral treatment candidate which is administered in combination with low dose ritonavir.
