WHO urges long-haul flights passengers to wear masks amid rapid spread of COVID-19 variant

As the latest Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 spreads across countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officials, in a press briefing on Wednesday, urged passengers on long-haul flights to wear masks. "Passengers should be advised to wear masks in high-risk settings such as long-haul flights," said WHO's senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, adding: "this should be a recommendation issued to passengers arriving from anywhere where there is widespread COVID-19 transmission".

In Europe, the XBB.1.5 subvariant was detected in small but growing numbers, WHO/Europe officials said at a press briefing. XBB.1.5 - the most transmissible Omicron subvariant detected so far - accounted for 27.6% of COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ended January 7, health officials have said. It was unclear if XBB.1.5 would cause its own wave of global infections. Current vaccines continue to protect against severe symptoms, hospitalisation and death, as per experts.

Regardless of vax status, opting for a more "protective" disposable mask like a N95 mask, KN95 mask or KF94 mask could help prevent you from getting COVID while traveling. A US federal court overturned the mask mandate in April 2022 with flyers no longer required to wear masks. 

Fresh cases in US caused by new variant

A report has claimed that the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is responsible for infecting nearly 41 percent of people across the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant has appeared to be the most dominant strain and has pushed out other variants, including BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 subvariants, from their previous positions as the most detected coronavirus mutations.

Notably, the report stated that the XBB subvariant, from which XBB.15 descends, is a combination of two subvariants that come from the BA.2 omicron subvariant. According to The Hill, the highly infectious virus carries genetic data from two versions of COVID-19 that originated from the BA.2 subvariant. It is important to note that XBB.1.5 is responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the northeast, accounting for 75% of cases in New England and the New York tri-state area.

Three years since the first COVID-19 death was reported

On January 11 in 2020, health authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan reported the first death from what had been identified as a new type of coronavirus. The patient was a 61-year-old man who’d been a frequent customer at a food market linked to the majority of cases there.