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Boosting doses can help curb the spread of COVID-19 as long as the people who need it most have access to these doses, said the head of the World Health Organization.
Health officials in many countries around the world are urging people to take booster doses, as some studies have suggested that they offer additional protection against the coronavirus.
“It is a question of prioritization. It matters who has access to these doses. Giving boosting doses to groups of people at low risk of serious illness or death puts at risk the lives of people who are in the high-risk category and who are still waiting to receive their first dose. because there is a lack of supplies of vaccines “, said the head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He also spoke about the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron, and said that existing vaccines seem to be less effective against this variant, but added that they still offer “sufficient protection” to prevent serious illness and death.
The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa last month and has since been reported in 77 countries around the world. However, the head of the WHO said that this variant should not be considered as “easier” than the previous variants, adding that this variant may have spread almost all over the world.
“Omicroni is spreading at a speed we have not seen with any previous variant. “Even if Omicroni causes milder diseases, if the number of cases increases, it will be able to overload the health systems again”, said Tedros.
In a study published Tuesday, the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was found to be less effective in people in South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first detected.
The head of the WHO expressed his concerns about the vaccination programs of several states, which have started giving boosting doses to the entire adult population for fear of the spread of Omicron. He said that there are still no accurate data on the effectiveness of booster doses against the Omicron variant./REL/
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