WHO laments 500,000 Covid-19 deaths since Omicron
- The UN health agency is tracking four sub-lineages of the variant, including BA. 2, which is even more transmissible
- Omicron is causing an ‘astounding’ number of cases, making previous peaks ‘look almost flat’, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19 says
The World Health Organization lamented on Tuesday that half a million Covid-19 deaths had been recorded since the Omicron variant was discovered, calling the toll “beyond tragic”.
The WHO’s incident manager Abdi Mahamud said that 130 million cases and 500,000 deaths had been recorded globally since Omicron was declared a variant of concern in late November.
It has since rapidly overtaken Delta as the world’s dominant Covid-19 variant because it is more transmissible, though it appears to cause less severe illness.
“In the age of effective vaccines, half a million people dying, it’s really something,” Mahamud told a live interaction on the WHO’s social media channels.
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“While everyone was saying Omicron is milder, (they) missed the point that half a million people have died since this was detected. It’s beyond tragic.”