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Covid-19: Act now to curb Omicron's spread, WHO's Tedros tells world

"Any complacency now will cost lives."

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Governments should urgently reassess their national responses to Covid-19 and accelerate their vaccination programmes to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

The global spread of the variant suggests it could have a major impact on the pandemic, and the time to contain it is now, before more Omicron patients are hospitalised, he told a news briefing.

“We call on all countries to increase surveillance, testing and sequencing,” he said. “... Any complacency now will cost lives.”

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