News Desk
LONDON: Officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) have urged countries to consider recommending passengers wear masks amid the rapid spread of the new Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 in the United States.
In Europe, the XBB.1.5 subvariant was found to be in small but growing numbers, WHO and European officials said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
WHO official
The global health body’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said that passengers should be advised to wear masks in high-risk settings such as long-haul flights.
“This should be a recommendation issued to passengers coming from anywhere where there is widespread transmission of Covid-19,” she added.
It is still unclear if XBB1.5 will cause its own wave of infections across the world.
XBB1.5 has a higher level of mutation that enables it to better avoid the human immune system’s defences, making it more transmissible than any other variant.
