The World Health Organization’s emergency committee decided “unanimously” that it was not time to lower the level of caution against Covid, the head of the committee announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
“The situation with regard to the Covid pandemic is not over yet,” said Didier Hossan, after the committee concluded that the pandemic remains a national health emergency of international concern, which is the highest level of alert that can be issued by the WHO.
And on Monday, the organization confirmed that it is working to track and study dozens of infections with two new strains, stemming from the “Omicron” mutant of the Corona virus.
The organization stated that it is working to study the two highly transmissible strains, to ensure that they carry more severe and dangerous symptoms of Covid-19 disease, compared to the previous four strains mutated from “Omicron”.
The organization added the two sister strains “BA.4” and “BA.5”, to the list of other strains it is working on, emanating from the original Omicron mutant “BA.1” and also “BA.2”, the two dominant strains globally at the present time. In addition to “BA.1.1” and “BA.3”.
The organization said it was working to track the two strains because of their “additional mutations, which must be studied in greater depth to understand their impact on the potential for immune evasion.”
And the British Ministry of Health Security announced, last week, the registration of the “BA.4” strain in South Africa, Denmark, Botswana, Scotland and England, from 10 to 30 March.
As for the “BA.5” strain, it was documented in South Africa starting last week, but Botswana confirmed, on Monday, the registration of four cases of “BA.4” and “BA.5” strains among people aged between 30 and 50 years. They had previously been fully vaccinated and had mild symptoms.