By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PAN American Health Organisation officials have urged countries in the region to not panic over the new Omicron strain but instead to focus efforts on redoubling virus surveillance and expanding vaccine coverage in view of the new threat.

Speaking during PAHO’s weekly webinar, the organisation’s director, Dr Carissa Etienne said while it’s only a matter of time before the strain spreads throughout the region, there is no need for people to become fearful.

This comes as officials in the United States announced the strain had been confirmed in California, becoming America’s first detected case. The person, who is experiencing mild symptoms, had been vaccinated against COVID-19 and recently returned from South Africa, AP reported.

Dr Etienne said the same preventative tools used in the past to safeguard against previous COVID strains are just as effective today and encouraged all to continue following the public health safety measures.

“Canada and Brazil are the only countries in our region where the Omicron variant has been detected, but it is likely that other countries will begin seeing this new variant in circulation soon,” she said yesterday, before news broke about America’s first case of the strain.

“That’s why it’s important that countries redouble their surveillance efforts, share sequences with the Genomic Surveillance Network of the Americas and report any Omicron cases to the WHO (World Health Organisation). Speed and transparency are especially critical at this time. But above all, we urge people not to be frightened.

“The most important thing people can do to protect themselves is to get vaccinated and to reduce their risk of exposure to the virus. This can be done by wearing masks, maintaining physical distance from others, frequent hand washing, and avoiding crowded spaces, especially indoors. It is important to note that these measures are effective against all variants, including Omicron.”

Regarding the potential impact of the new strain, Dr Etienne said it was too early to determine the virus’ severity or contagiousness as there was still little data known.

“It is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible than other variants, or if it causes more severe disease but researchers around the world are actively conducting studies to better understand this variant so we have the best available evidence to guide our actions,” she said.

“The virus still needs to be isolated to conduct neutralisation tests, and this process will take some time. Until these tests and other laboratory assays are completed, we will not have enough evidence to determine the degree of transmissibility or severity of the Omicron variant, or to assess the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines against it.”

In the meantime, she said PAHO will continue to closely monitor other variants in the region, including the Delta variant which she said remains the dominant strain in the Americas.

Concerns about the vaccine’s efficacy against the newly discovered Omicron strain comes as vaccine uptake in many countries, including The Bahamas, continues to wane.

According to Dr Etienne, only 54 percent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against COVID- 19, making these regions “especially vulnerable”.

“As I’ve said before, vaccine inequity is prolonging the COVID crisis,” she added, “and this is exactly what we’re seeing with the arrival of Omicron. The more COVID-19 circulates, the more opportunities the virus has to mutate and to change. That’s why it is crucial that we expand vaccinations to all.”

The push for vaccinations comes as the government prepares to ramp up its public education campaign, with officials eyeing a goal of 200,000 fully vaccinated citizens by year’s end.

Yesterday, PAHO’s assistant director Dr Jarbas Barbosa said he hopes the country achieves this goal and added that more vaccine doses are expected to arrive in The Bahamas in the days ahead.

He also said: “We are working with countries in the

Caribbean to increase the information, communication and the mobilisation of their population to get vaccinated. The Bahamas has asked COVAX to purchase the vaccines that corresponded to 20 percent of their popu-lation and The Bahamas has already received 158,000 doses that corresponded to this 20 percent. “And now using funds from donations from Canada and from Columbia and using also the national resources, we have persons on behalf of The Bahamas using the alternative by direct purchasing through to the revolving fund and another 96,000 doses will probably arrive in Decem-ber and (another) 48,000 in the first quarter next year so The Bahamas, we hope that you achieve that more than 40 percent using a combination of having more access to vaccines and also explaining and having a good communication strategy to invite people to come to be vaccinated to save lives.” According to the gov-ernment’s latest vaccine tracker, 146,441 people have been fully vacci-nated, while 143,217 people have received at least one vaccine dose (excluding the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).