{"id":44874,"date":"2021-12-03T14:02:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T14:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailysouthafrica.com\/?p=44874"},"modified":"2021-12-03T14:02:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T14:02:58","slug":"who-chief-scientist-says-omicron-quite-infectious-must-not-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailysouthafrica.com\/who-chief-scientist-says-omicron-quite-infectious-must-not-panic\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO chief scientist says Omicron &#8216;quite infectious&#8217;, must not panic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 75px;height: 75px;border-radius: 50%;background: url(https:\/\/nordot-res.cloudinary.com\/c_limit,w_200,h_200,f_auto,q_auto:eco\/ch\/units\/721958051058909184\/profile_1.jpg);background-position: center;background-size: cover;vertical-align: middle\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 5px;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;vertical-align: middle\">Published by <br \/>Reuters<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px\"><\/div>\n<p>By Francesco Guarascio and Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters) -The World Health Organization&#8217;s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters on Friday that while the new coronavirus variant Omicron appeared to be very transmissible, the right response was to be prepared, cautious and not panic. The WHO has urged countries to boost healthcare capacity and vaccinate their people to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, saying travel curbs could buy time but alone were not the answer. &#8220;How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we&#8217;re in a&#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"nordot-read-more \" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nordot.app\/839483281882939392?c=819177386184916992\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published by Reuters By Francesco Guarascio and Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters) -The World Health Organization&#8217;s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters on Friday that while the new coronavirus variant Omicron appeared to be very transmissible, the right response was to be prepared, cautious and not panic. The WHO has urged countries to boost healthcare capacity and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dailysouthafrica.com\/who-chief-scientist-says-omicron-quite-infectious-must-not-panic\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;WHO chief scientist says Omicron &#8216;quite infectious&#8217;, must not panic&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":44876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WHO chief scientist says Omicron &#039;quite infectious&#039;, must not panic - Daily South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailysouthafrica.com\/who-chief-scientist-says-omicron-quite-infectious-must-not-panic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WHO chief scientist says Omicron &#039;quite infectious&#039;, must not panic - Daily South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Published by Reuters By Francesco Guarascio and Stephanie Nebehay (Reuters) -The World Health Organization&#8217;s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters on Friday that while the new coronavirus variant Omicron appeared to be very transmissible, the right response was to be prepared, cautious and not panic. 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