Boosters not the way out of pandemic, WHO warns
LONDON: The WHO warned on Wednesday that rich countries cannot use boosters to escape the coronavirus and France became one of the first nations to vaccinate children over five, as nations scrambled to contain Omicron surges.
China, meanwhile, cracked down on the latest outbreak of the virus, shutting down a whole city.
And Britain, which reported a record 106,000 new cases in 24 hours, approved Pfizer’s jab for children aged five and up, as US health regulators authorised the company’s Covid pill for at-risk patients over 12.
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” said the World Health Organisation’s secretary-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Wednesday. “Blanket booster programs are likely to prolong the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate.”
Nor should a third dose of vaccine be seen as carte blanche, he added: “Boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to go ahead with planned celebrations”.
Unrestrained end-of-year celebrations could still prove to be major sources of new infections, the WHO warned.
The threat of the highly mutated Omicron variant is looming large over the end-ofyear holidays, pushing many governments to roll out new restrictions and urge citizens to get vaccinated.
The latest data suggests Omicron does not cause more severe illness than previous variants but as soaring infection numbers threaten to overwhelm health systems, scientists warn it could still cause more deaths.
France on Wednesday opened vaccinations to children aged between five and 11, warning that daily infections rates could hit 100,000 by the end of the year, up from a weekly average of 54,000.
Britain approved Pfizer’s Covid jab for children aged five to 11, announced it would buy millions of Covid pills, and cut the isolation period for infected people from 10 to seven days with negative tests.
It also signed deals to acquire 4.25 million courses of Pfizer’s ritonavir and US rival Merck/MSD’s molnupiravir antiviral drugs, raising hope for an easy at-home treatment.
And Finland revealed plans to expand its vaccination program to children aged between five and 12, a day after announcing bars must close at 9pm on Christmas Eve to fight record Covid infection levels.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) meanwhile authorised Pfizer’s Covid pill for high-risk people aged 12 and over, calling it an important milestone in the pandemic that will allow millions to access the treatment.
In China, only 52 new reported infections were enough for authorities to impose a stringent lockdown on more than 13 million people in the northern city of Xi’an. Residents must stay at home except to buy necessities once every two days or in emergencies.