The World Health Organization recently discovered a new strain of Covid-19 – B.1.1.529 to be a variant of concern and renamed it as Omicron.
The variant was first detected in Southern Africa. the classification puts Omicron in the most-troubling category of Covid-19 variants along with the globally- dominant Delta.
In order to slow the spread of Omicron on November 26, nations rushed to ban flights. While even stock markets and oil prices dropped fearing the variant, potentially dealing a heavy blow to the economy.
The UN health agency said in a statement “Based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in Covid-19 epidemiology… the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern (VOC), named Omicron,”.
On November 26, WHO called on countries to increase their surveillance and virus sequencing efforts to better understand the circulating variants.
