"Twin threat" Omikron and Delta: WHO warns of corona "tsunami"

Created: 12/30/2021, 2:51 PM

From: Martina Lippl

An employee in protective clothing holds a smear from a corona test in her hands.

© Riccardo Fabi / imago

Great Britain, France and Denmark report record numbers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of a critical situation.

Geneva - In the world and in Europe, the corona cases are increasing massively, also because of Omikron.

The number of infections is skyrocketing.

At the moment, the combination of Delta and Omikron variants is driving up the number of cases of infection.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns of the "twin threat" of the two variants.

"I am very concerned that Omicron, which circulates simultaneously with Delta, is more easily transmissible and leads to a tsunami of cases," said WHO chief Tedros on Wednesday.

"This puts the exhausted health workers and the health systems, which are on the verge of collapse, under immense pressure and will continue to do so." The pressure is also due to the high number of sick health workers.

Tedros emphasized that unvaccinated people are many times more at risk of dying from one of the two corona variants.

Studies suggest that Omikron is far more contagious but milder than the Delta variant.

But in view of the rising number of cases, the WHO assumes an increase in hospital admissions and deaths.

Omicron: doubling rate by two to three days

The WHO continues to classify the risk from Omikron as "very high" worldwide.

Omikron has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling rate of two to three days.

The UN organization expects that Omikron could lead to a "large number of hospital admissions" in Europe.

This is due to the expected mass of infections, said Catherine Smallwood of the WHO European Directorate on Tuesday the AFP news agency.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that rapid antigen tests are less likely to detect an infection with Omikron than with other variants.

Omikron: WHO sees shortening the corona quarantine as a "compromise"

The WHO has shown understanding for the shortening of the corona quarantine by some states.

The reduction of the quarantine duration is a "compromise" between the control of the infection process and economic considerations, said the WHO emergency adviser Michael Ryan on Wednesday in Geneva.

• Spain announced on Wednesday that it would reduce the quarantine for infected people from ten to seven days.

• USA has halved the quarantine time for symptom-free infected people from ten to five days. 

• Argentina wants to reduce the quarantine of fully vaccinated infected people from ten to seven days.

  Without symptoms, the quarantine for vaccinated persons is shortened to five days.

• In Germany, a shortening of the quarantine is currently being discussed.

WHO guideline on quarantine in case of omicron infection

In its guidelines, the WHO recommends quarantining those who are symptomatically infected for ten days after the onset of symptoms, plus at least three further symptom-free days.

For infected people without symptoms, the WHO recommends an isolation period of ten days after the positive test.

Omicron?

One symptom in particular indicates an infection with the new variant.