The increase in omicron cases in the world might increase the risk of appearance of new, more dangerous variantswarned the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.
Although omicron is spreading rapidly around the world, seems to be much less serious than was feared and has raised hopes that the coronavirus pandemic can be overcome.
However, Catherine Smallwood, WHO’s head of emergencies, said that increased infection rates might have the opposite effect.
“The more omicron is spread, the more it is transmitted, the more it replicates, and the more likely it is to generate a new variant,” Smallwood explained.
Europe has registered more than one hundred million cases since the start of the pandemic, and more than five million new cases in the last week of 2021, “almost overshadowing what we have seen in the past,” he stressed.
“We are in a very dangerous phase, we are seeing infection rates increasing very significantly in Western Europe and the full impact of this is not yet clear, “he added.
According to Smallwood, UK health crisis, caused by a lack of personnel due to the wave of omicron infections, might be repeated in other European countries.
Ómicron in Colombia
The variant was initially detected in three travelers, two from the United States and one from Spain who arrived in Cartagena and Santa Marta to spend Christmas and New Years. Currently the circulation in Bogotá, Barranquila and Antioquia has been confirmed.
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the variant would be the cause of the increase in positive cases in the country. In the most recent report, 9,848 infections were registered as of January 3, 2022.
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