WHO urges travellers to wear masks as COVID variant spreads

HY News 11 January, 2023 12:52 pm IST
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The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to recommend all those travelling to wear masks in view of the rapid spread of the new Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.5 across the world.

Quoting Health officials, media reports said tXBB.1.5 - the most transmissible Omicron subvariant detected so far - accounted for 27.6% of COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ended Jan. 7.

In Europe, the XBB.1.5 subvariant was detected in small but growing numbers, WHO and Europe officials said at a press briefing.

WHO's senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood said, passengers should be advised to wear masks in high-risk settings such as long-haul flights. It was unclear if XBB.1.5 would cause its own wave of global infections. Current vaccines continue to protect against severe symptoms, hospitalisation and death, experts say.

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