The infectious virus Omicron is a less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as “mild”, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus clarified.

While giving the statement in Geneva, he said that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising and killing people, reports Reuters.

Janet Diaz, WHO lead on clinical management said that when Omicron was first detected, early studies showed that there was a reduced risk of hospitalisation.

According to her, the impact on the elderly is one of the big unanswered questions about the new variant as most of the cases studied so far have been in younger people.

Currently, healthcare systems are overwhelmed, and governments are struggling to deal with the new variant which has killed millions of people worldwide.

The vaccine process is quite slow in many countries. According to Ghebreyesus, 109 countries will miss the WHO’s target for 70 per cent of the world’s population to be fully vaccinated by July.

Pakistan recorded 1293 cases on Friday and the positivity rate stands at 2.52 per cent.