Omicron 'quite infectious' but don't panic - WHO

Swaminathan said during an interview at the Reuters Next conference on Friday (December 3) that the right response was to be prepared and cautious and not to panic in face of the new variant.

"How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we're in a different situation to a year ago," Swaminathan said.

The emergence of the new variant was unwelcome, she said, but added that the world was much better prepared given the development of vaccines since the start of the pandemic.