Omicron: Every country should prepare for a surge in Covid cases, WHO warns
Every country should be preparing for a surge in coronavirus cases, the World Health Organization has said, warning that the new Omicron variant shows the need to "stay vigilant".
The group told governments around the world that they "cannot be complacent" about coronavirus, adding that winter will put additional pressure on health services as other infectious respiratory diseases, such as the flu, spread alongside Covid-19.
"Every country and every community must prepare for new surges in cases," said Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.
But, he said, the "positive news in all of this is that none of the information we have currently about Omicron suggests we need to change the directions of our response."
On Thursday the UK recorded 53,945 new Covid infection, the highest number of cases since mid-July, when London was hosting Euro 2020 football matches.
The latest ONS figures show about one in 60 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to November 27, up from one in 65 the previous week.
UK health minister Ed Argar accepted this winter will be “critical for our NHS”, but told MPs the government is doing "everything" it can to protect Britons through new Covid measures on mask wearing, border controls and the bolstered vaccination programme.
There are now dozens of cases of the variant in the UK now and the number of infections is expected to grow significantly in the coming days.
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Dr Kasai said "it is clear that this pandemic is far from over".
“We should not be surprised to see more surges in the future. As long as transmission continues, the virus can continue to mutate, as the emergence of Omicron demonstrates, reminding us of the need to stay vigilant," Dr Kasai said.
“But my message today is that we can adapt the way we manage this virus to better cope with the future surges and reduce their health, social and economic impacts," he added.
At the centre of the UK's plan to tackle the Omicron variant is its booster jab campaign, however the WHO has previously said governments should be focusing on people who have not yet had their first jab, rather than aiming to give healthy people their third.
WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead Dr Maria Kerkhove said: "We need vaccines to get into the arms of all of those who are at risk in every single country, not just in some countries, and not adding more vaccines to people who are already protected, but getting that first and second dose to those individuals who are at risk in all countries."
It is not yet clear how much of an impact the Omicron variant could have on vaccinated people's immunity to Covid, with concerns jabs could be less effective against it, but experts believe a booster dose will help defend against severe disease.
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Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "It's possible that they might be less effective against this new variant but its also very likely that they will remain effective against serious disease."
It's for this reason the UK this week secured a 114 million more vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which the government says will be enough for booster jab schemes to run until 2023.
These vaccines are understood to be the most effective as boosters, University Hospital Southampton's CovBoost study announced on Friday, however they have not been tested against the Omicron variant.
Mr Javid has said the government will put the UK's booster jab programme "on steroids" in a bid to drive up immunity, with the scheme being extended to all those aged 18 and over.
Vaccine eligibility has also been extended for 12 to 15 year olds, who have now been approved to have their second dose after previously only being allowed their first.
Even youngsters aged between five and 11 could soon have their first jab, with ministers taking advice from experts on whether vaccinating primary school children would provide indirect protection to adults.
Another weapon in the government's arsenal is a monoclonal antibody treatment called Xevudy, which was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Thursday.
Its makers, GSK and Vir Biotechnology, say the drug could tackle the Omicron variant, with preclinical data showing the drug “retains activity against key mutations of the new Omicron Sars-CoV-2 variant”.