There will be no wonder if omicron-variant detected in Canada, speaks WHO official

Key takeaways: 

• Public health standards, global vaccination drive key to a combat pandemic, says Dr Peter Singer.
• Tourists line up to board an Air France flight to Paris at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Friday. 
• A slew of countries moved to prevent air travel from southern Africa on Friday in response to news of a new, possibly more transmissible COVID-19 variant that has been identified in South Africa. 

The newly identified variant from Africa ‘Omicron:’ 

An extraordinary adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization states it “wouldn’t be a surprise” if there were cases of the omicron variant of the covid-19 in Canada.

“It may be in any country, and the harder one looks, the more likely one is to find it, so it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Dr Peter Singer stated in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live that opened Sunday. Source – cbc.ca

The Canadian doctor said guest host David Cochrane that much was still strange regarding the new variant, called omicron by the WHO and which was first recognised by researchers in South Africa. Cases have also been identified in the Netherlands, the U.K., Germany and Australia, among other nations.

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“What we know is that it’s got a lot of mutations, and it can change the epidemiology… What we don’t know is its effect on transmissibility, its effect on how severe the clinical disease is and its effect on the effectiveness of vaccines,” he stated. Source – cbc.ca

Singer wrote that the first things Canadians can do to defend themselves are identical as they have been completely the COVID-19 pandemic: get vaccinated and follow public health standards.

“This is a call for individuals to raise their guard. There are things individuals can do which help with any variant or any version of this virus, including omicron.” Source – cbc.ca