Augmenting the public health response to ensure effective containment of the Omicron variant

Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus disease–2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to disrupt human lives and almost all sectors and industries. The purpose of the current review was to explore the Omicron variant, the associated global risk, and the public health measures that need to be taken to contain the new variant. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and the World Health Organization website. A total of 13 articles were selected based upon their suitability with the current review objectives. Keywords used in the search include COVID-19 and Omicron in the title alone only. The World Health Organization identified a new variant of concern – Omicron on November 26, 2021, which has been reported in more than 170 nations. Depending on the evidence that has surfaced till now, the overall global risk associated with Omicron has been identified as very high. However, the variant has not been linked with serious forms of illness and complications; nevertheless, the large number of cases resulting due to high transmissibility has definitely accounted for a proportional rise in the number of hospital admissions and thus overwhelming the health-care delivery systems. To conclude, the Omicron variant of the causative virus has been associated with high transmissibility but low rates of development of serious infections. This call for the need to raise to the occasion, and all of us should adhere to the standard prevention and control measures and get immunized with the vaccine at the earliest.