WHO urges travellers to wear masks on long-haul flights amid Covid variant spread

Amid the spread of Omicron subvariant in the United States, World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Tuesday urged all countries to recommend theirtravellers wear masks on long-haul flights. Catherine Smallwood,asenior emergency officer of WHO for Europe said that wearing masks "should be a recommendation issued to passengers arriving from anywhere where there is widespread COVID-19 transmission."

In Europe a small number of XBB.1.5 subvariant have been detected, officials said ata press brief on Tuesday. As of now, it's unclear if the newly emerged subvariant will cause an infection wave of its own, like the earlier ones.Though according to experts, the current vaccines continue to protect against severe symptoms, hospitalisation and death, Reuters reported.

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Health officials also said that as of now, the XBB.1.5 is the most transmissible Omicron subvariant detected. It also accounts for almost 27.6 per cent of the COVID-19 deaths in the United States in the first week of January.

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Smallwood said, "Countries need to look at the evidence base for pre-departure testing" and if an action is required, "travel measures should be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner." This does not mean that the organisation recommends testing passengers from the US at this stage, she added.

According to data reported by the WHO at beginning of this month, an analysis of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed a slight dominance of Omicron sublineages BA.5.2 and BF.7 among the locally acquired infections.

Many countries including the United States are demanding COVID-19 tests from travellers from China.

(With inputs from agencies)

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