Hinting that the pandemic is not over, WHO’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, noted that currently Omicron BA.2 is still dominant worldwide. She noted that several other variants like the XE, BA.4 and BA.5 have also been detected.
Under these circumstances, it is extremely essential to maintain all COVID rules to curb the spread of the virus, although there is no need to impose another lockdown-like measure in the future. She indicated that ‘all people must wear masks’ as a precautionary measure.
Swaminathan said that COVID is an airborne virus in which closed, crowded places, with poor ventilation, are at risk. “So, as long as covid continues to spread among people, it is good to maintain caution and follow covid guidelines,” she emphasised.
Listing out the preventive measures, she said:
• If everyone wears a well-fitting face mask, the risk of spreading it can be greatly reduced.
• Those who have symptoms of respiratory illness should stay at home and everyone should keep washing their hands.
• Guidelines can be made according to epidemiology. Public health measures should be tightened as the infection progresses.
Swaminathan noted that vaccination is the best protective measure against the COVID virus. She observed that vaccine immunity wears off over time and even complete vaccination with Omicron does not fully protect against infection. However, a full course of vaccination is still the best defence against serious illness, she reaffirmed.
“In the cases of fast-spreading viruses like Omicron, we saw that it was difficult to stop the infection, but it was possible to prevent the deaths due to vaccination.”
She also indicated that WHO is closely monitoring the situation to see if the vaccine composition will need to be modified.
Speaking about lockdown-like measures, she said, “In the early days of the pandemic, there was no other way to stop the virus from spreading. Today, we have good testing facilities, vaccines and even some useful medicines. So, we don’t need to adopt crude measures like lockdown. However, whether the government should make masks mandatory or not, all people must wear masks.”
The COVID-19 update provided by Anguilla’s Ministry of Health is as follows:
Covid Statistics for Anguilla as of April 25
Confirmed Cases: 2,788
Recovered Cases: 2,766
Active Cases: 13
Covid Deaths: 9 (7 unvaccinated adults; 2 vaccinated adults with underlying risk factors; 6 males, 3 females)
New Deaths:0
Isolation Unit:0
