The director of the Department of Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Reduction of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Ciro Ugarte, explained this Wednesday that if in Venezuela citizens do not take the necessary protection measures, the omicron variant would soon become predominant. among the population.
“It is estimated that this variant progressively reaches other parts of the Venezuelan territory, as occurs in most countries and that it progressively be the predominant variant,” he said in the Press conference weekly carried out by the agency in response to the pandemic in the countries of the region.
However, the PAHO expert pointed out that the sooner Venezuelans take precautions to reduce the risks of transmission of the disease, caused by the coronavirus, it will also decrease the impact in health services and in the population.
Ugarte reaffirmed that omicron is “highly transmissible.”
He explained that for the moment the countries of the region have already reported significant increases in covid-19, among them, Venezuela. According to the expert, the country registered in the last week “89% increase in new cases” and 37% of deaths. Although it did not clarify if these new infections are due to omicron.
Finally, PAHO stressed that whatever variant is causing new waves of coronavirus in the world, such as omicron, “it is a public health issue” and all measures must be taken to stop the virus.
“This does not mean that health services are overloaded, but protection measures will make a difference, in such a way that we must emphasize this process for Venezuela and for the countries of the region,” said Ugarte.