WHO representatives have recommended that nations take into consideration advising travellers to wear masks on long-haul flights. The announcement coincides with the recent Omicron subvariant of Covid-19 rapidly spreading throughout the US.
WHO says countries should recommend passengers wear masks on long haul flights
The wearing of face masks should be advised to passengers travelling from anywhere where there is widespread Covid-19 transmission, according to WHO and European experts speaking at a news conference.
“Countries need to look at the evidence foundation for pre-departure testing and, if action is contemplated, travel controls should be applied in a non-discriminatory manner,” said Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer for WHO in Europe.
That doesn’t mean, she continued, that the government currently advises testing for American travellers.
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EU’s Integrated Political Crisis Response group (IPCR) recommends all passengers from China wear masks
The EU’s Integrated Political Crisis Response group (IPCR), which is composed of representatives from the EU’s 27 nations, also suggested last week that all passengers on flights to and from China wear face masks and that individuals arriving from China be subjected to random testing.
Numerous scientists, including those with the WHO, think China is probably understating the full scope of the outbreak.
According to Smallwood, the WHO is aware that China’s definition of what constitutes a Covid-19 fatality is stringent and “not necessarily the case definition that WHO has advised nations use.”
More than a dozen nations, including the US, are requiring Covid tests on Chinese travellers.
The most transmissible OMICRON sub variant is XBB.1.5
Health officials have reported that XBB.1.5, the most contagious Omicron subvariant yet identified, was responsible for 27.6% of Covid-19 cases in the United States during the week ending January 7.
Whether XBB.1.5 would start a new worldwide infectious wave was unknown.
The variety is a further offspring of Omicron, the virus that causes Covid-19 and is currently the most contagious and dominant worldwide.
It is a branch of XBB, which was discovered for the first time in October and is a recombinant of two different Omicron subvariants.
Since China switched away from its renowned “zero COVID” policy last month, concerns about XBB.1.5 fueling a new wave of cases in the United States and elsewhere are growing.
Information related to OMICRON Variant Data
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s review of data released by the WHO earlier this month revealed that Omicron sublineages BA.5.2 and BF.7 predominated among locally acquired diseases.
Tuesday saw the release of recommendations for flights between China and the European Union from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), including “non-pharmaceutical measures to reduce the spread of the virus, such as mask-wearing and testing of travellers, as well as monitoring of waste water as an early warning tool to detect new variants.”
The authorities advise “increased cleaning and disinfection of planes serving certain routes” as well as “random testing may also be carried out on a sample of arriving passengers.”
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