The World Health Organization has said the omicron coronavirus variant has now been reported from 57 countries, South Korea tops the list of the number of new covid cases.
The new coronavirus variant omicron has so far been found in 57 countries, the World Health Organization said, warning that the rate of hospitalization resulting from infection is likely to rise.
The WHO said it needed more data to evaluate the severity of the disease caused by the new variant.
“Even if the severity is equal or potentially even lower than for delta variant, it is expected that hospitalizations will increase if more people become infected and that there will be a time lag between an increase in the incidence of cases and an increase in the incidence of deaths,” it said.
In an interview with the AFP news agency on Tuesday, the WHO’s Director of Health Emergencies Michael Ryan said it was “highly unlikely” that the new variant dodged vaccine protections entirely.