Next Covid-19 variant could be worse, more infectious than Omicron, WHO warns

Washington, Feb 09: As the world looks forward to normalcy with the waning Omicron wave, the World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist and technical lead on COVID-19 Dr Maria Van Kerkhove has said that the pandemic is not over yet and warned that the next Covid variant will be even more contagious than Omicron.

However, they cannot predict how severe the symptoms will be.

"The next variant of concern will be more fit, and what we mean by that is it will be more transmissible because it will have to overtake what is currently circulating. The big question is whether or not future variants will be more or less severe," WHO epidemiologist and technical lead on Covid-19 Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said.

She further warned against buying into theories that the virus will continue to mutate into milder strains that make people less sick than earlier variants.

"We expect that with interventions, if they are used appropriately, we expect there to be a low level of circulation. But with that low level of circulation, there'll be flare-ups, there will be outbreaks. And those outbreaks will occur in people who are not well protected. Either because they have not been vaccinated because they don't have access, they refuse to be vaccinated because there is vaccine hesitancy which we are working to address globally," she said while expounding on the importance of getting inoculated against COVID-19.