THE emergence of a highly infectious variant of Covid-19 that has been named as Omicron has rung alarm bells in the world.
Suspected new cases appeared in Germany and Czech Republic on Saturday while Dutch authorities quarantined over sixty passengers who came from South Africa — the origin of new variant.
It has been reported that the new variant is more transmissible than the Delta and scientists are also racing to determine whether it can evade existing vaccines.
The very appearance of a new variant carries many lessons for the whole world especially developed countries that got their population vaccinated while ignoring poor nations.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown rightly stated that the very failure of wealthy nations to get vaccines to developing world is coming back to haunt us while experts are also of the view that new variant could have been averted if jabs had been more fairly distributed.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had also repeatedly called for equitable distribution of the vaccine emphasising that nobody is safe until everybody is safe.
But all those calls fell on deaf ears and the result is before everybody. And if the new variant proves to be immune to current vaccines, it will be disastrous for all the countries, as they again will have to opt for shutdowns before new vaccines are developed to fight this variant.
Such a scenario will further aggravate economic situation and livelihoods of people in poor nations. Up till now, because of better policy decisions, Pakistan better handled the Covid-19 situation.
The smart lockdown policy as well as accelerated vaccination of people helped us to restore normalcy. But as the new challenge is before us, we have to remain extra cautious and vigilant.
The government on Saturday banned travel from six African countries and Hong Kong and this should be extended to other countries where cases of new variant are emerging.
It was because of better cooperation and discipline of our people that we have so far successfully tackled the pandemic.
Everyone must continue to observe the SOPs to stay safe. Awareness campaigns on media must also continue to keep the people alert.
