The World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist has urged people not to panic over the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant, adding it was too early to say if Covid-19 vaccines would have to be modified to fight it.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan said that the new coronavirus variant Omicron appeared to be very transmissible, but that it was impossible to predict if Omicron would become the dominant strain.
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.