UNICEF Urges Gov'ts, Private Sector To Scale Up Response To S.Africa Due To Omicron Strain

UNICEF has called on both the governments and the private sector to boost their assistance to South Africa in the wake of the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, the UN agency's Chief of Communication and Partnerships in South Africa Toby Fricker told Sputnik

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2021) UNICEF has called on both the governments and the private sector to boost their assistance to South Africa in the wake of the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, the UN agency's Chief of Communication and Partnerships in South Africa Toby Fricker told Sputnik.

"Children and young people have been so affected by the pandemic and related disruptions to their education, access to routine health services, protection issues such as domestic and online violence, as well as lost livelihoods and lost opportunities that affect families as a whole. UNICEF and partners on the ground are working to mitigate the broad ranging impact of COVID-19 and we call for additional support from governments and the private sector to scale-up the COVID-19 related response to help children and young people recover and to build back better from the holistic impact of COVID-19 on childhood," Fricker said.

Fricker noted that while South Africa now has a good supply of COVID-19 vaccines, however, the challenge is to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible.

"UNICEF continues to work with the Department of Health at a national and provincial level to promote COVID-19 prevention measures and to get COVID-19 shots into as many arms as possible, this includes through cold chain support and mobile COVID-19 vaccine outreach sites," Fricker stated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) identified on Friday the new South African strain as one of concern, as it is reported to carry a high number of mutations � 32 � which possibly makes it more transmissible and dangerous. The WHO has dubbed it Omicron, the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.

Following the reports about the new variant, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Israel, Australia and other countries have restricted travel from several southern African nations over the health concerns.