The new omicron coronavirus strain could slow the global economic recovery while maintaining unequal access to vaccines between countries with different levels of wealth, said World Trade Organization (WTO) CEO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
“I think that the presence of the omicron option will slow down the recovery,” she said (quoted by RIA Novosti).
“If we don’t work very hard to solve this problem [неравного доступа к вакцинам]we will continue to face challenges that, in the end, will indeed pose a huge risk to a sustainable economic recovery in the world, ”explained Okonjo-Iweala.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus, has repeatedly made calls to ensure equal access to vaccination. “The shocking inequality in the global distribution of vaccines is a stain on our collective conscience,” Ghebreyesus said at the 71st session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in September.
Omicron was discovered in southern Africa in the first decade of November. According to the WHO, this variant of the virus has 32 mutations – more than all previously known ones. These changes increase the infectiousness of omicron, enhance its binding to receptors, potentially increase the level of penetration into human cells and affect the increase in infectivity, said the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova. In Russia, two cases of infection with this strain have been identified.
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