Sylvie Claire / November 27, 2021
The new variant is now called Omicron. Experts mandated by the World Health Organization (WHO) decided on Friday in Geneva that it should be considered as worrying.
The variant first identified two weeks ago in South Africa becomes the fifth to be classified at this level of importance. Experts are calling for increased surveillance and sequencing, WHO said early this evening.
Laboratories are also called upon to relay these analyses to public databases. Each case must be reported to the WHO through the International Health Regulations. A case has been detected in Belgium.
Further investigations should be conducted when possible.