WHO urges 'rational' measures against Omicron

The World Health Organization called Tuesday for countries to keep calm and take "rational" measures in response to the new, fast-spreading Covid variant Omicron, which has sparked global panic, report agencies.
"We call on all member states to take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing to countries.
"The global response must be calm, coordinated and coherent."
First reported to the WHO in southern Africa less than a week ago, the new strain has rapidly spread across continents, with dozens of countries announcing travel restrictions.
The UN health agency has cautioned against such restrictions, fearing that blocking travel from countries where new variants are first spotted could be unfair and dissuade surveillance.
Meanwhile, forty-two cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant have been confirmed in 10 European Union countries, the head of the EU's public health agency said on Tuesday.
Authorities in the 27-nation EU were analysing another six "probable" cases, Andrea Ammon, who chairs the European Centre for Disease prevention and Control (ECDC), told an online conference organised by the EU's Slovenian presidency.
She said the confirmed cases were mild or without symptoms, although in younger age groups.
Meanwhile, new mask mandates and other measures aimed at curbing the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant came into force in England on Tuesday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson eyes an expanded booster programme to help increase protection against COVID-19.
From Tuesday morning, face masks are compulsory on transport and in shops, banks and hair salons.
Another report adds: The overall number of Covid cases has surpassed 262 million amid concern of the emergence of a new variant, Omicron, in some countries.
According to Worldometers tally, the total case count mounted to 262,640,323 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,228,834 Tuesday morning.
More than 8 billion doses have been administered across 184 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The latest rate was roughly 35.5 million doses a day.
The US has recorded 48,438,063 cases to date and more than 778,701 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.
In another development, Pfizer has already started working on a version of its Covid-19 vaccine specifically targeting the new Omicron variant in case the current inoculation is not effective against the latest strain, the US drugmaker's CEO Albert Bourla said Monday.
Bourla told CNBC that his company on Friday began testing the current vaccine against the Omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa and has reignited fears of a global wave of Covid-19 infections.
"I don't think the result will be the vaccines don't protect," Bourla said.
But the testing could show that existing shots "protect less," which would mean "that we need to create a new vaccine," Bourla said.
"Friday we made our first DNA template, which is the first possible inflection of the development process of a new vaccine," he said.
Another report from Moscow adds: The backers of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V said Monday that the jab is effective against the new Omicron coronavirus variant but they were also developing an adapted booster.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said that the centre "has already begun developing the new version of Sputnik vaccine adapted to Omicron."