COVID-19: Possibility of new variants 'really high', WHO official warns

Describing new COVID-19 variants as "wild card", a top World Health Organization (WHO) official has warned that Omicron will t be last one and possibility of or new variants is really high.

During a question and answer session on WHO's social media platforms on Tuesday, WHO's COVID-19 Technical Lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that global health ncy is tracking four different versions of Omicron.

"We kw a lot about this virus, but we don't kw everything. And quite frankly, variants are 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...Omicron is latest variant of concern. It will t be last variant of concern that WHO will speak about. next one, you kw, that will come hopefully, it will take some time to get re. But with level of intensity of spread, possibility that we will have or variants is really high," she said. 

"So we need to ensure that we again, t only increase vaccination cover, but we also take measures to reduce spread," she added. 

Since designation of B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern on 26 vember 2021, several lines have been identified. se include Pango lines BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3, which are all being monitored by WHO under umbrella of Omicron.

"BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around world," Van Kerkhove said.

Omicron detected in almost every country: WHO

According to UN health ncy's weekly epidemiological report, released on Tuesday, Omicron variant is increasingly dominant - making up nearly 97% of all cases.

" prevalence of Omicron variant has increased globally and is w detected in almost all countries. However, many of countries which reported an early rise in number of cases due to Omicron variant have w reported a decline in total number of new cases since beginning of January 2022," it said. 

Globally, during week of January 31 to February 6, number of new COVID-19 cases decreased by 17% as compared to number reported during previous week, while number of new deaths increased by 7%.

As of February 6, over 392 million confirmed cases and over 5.7 million deaths have been reported globally.