More Covid-19 Variants of Concern Expected as Pandemic Has Not Ended Yet, Warns WHO

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WHO had previously warned that the Omicron strain will not be the last one and the possibility of other new variants is really high.

World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Friday cautioned against future Coronavirus variants and said the world is not yet at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have seen the virus evolve, mutate … so we know there will be more variants, more variants of concern, so we are not at the end of the pandemic,” Swaminathan was quoted as saying in South Africa by Reuters.

The top scientist made the statement during a visit to vaccine manufacturing facilities with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Swaminathan’s comment comes days after WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove warned that the Omicron strain will not be the last one and the possibility of other new variants is really high. Kerkhove said that the global health agency is tracking four different versions of Omicron.

“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. Since the designation of B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern on November 26, 2021, several lineages have been identified. These include Pango lineages BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3, which are all being monitored by WHO under the umbrella of ‘Omicron’.

“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 on Tuesday, the Omicron variant is increasingly dominant – making up nearly 97 per cent of all cases.

(With inputs from agencies)

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