Beijing [China], November 30 (ANI): China will successfully hold the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games on schedule, despite the worldwide spread of the new Omicron coronavirus strain, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.

“Regarding the impact of the Omicron strain on the Winter Olympics, I think it will definitely bring some prevention and control challenges, but thanks to China‘s experience in preventing the spread of and combating COVID-19, I am fully confident that the Winter Olympics the games will be successfully held in accordance with the schedule,” Sputnik quoted Zhao as saying. The Games are scheduled for February 4-20, 2022.

The WHO, on November 27, named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as ‘Omicron’. The World Health Organization has warned the Omicron variant, which has already been confirmed in Europe, Canada, Israel and Hong Kong, maybe more transmissible or evade immunity from previous infections and vaccines.

“Given mutations that may confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility advantage, the likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high,” the WHO said in its risk assessment on Monday within a technical brief to its 194 member states.

The WHO urged member states to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand variants, including omicron, and to increase community testing to detect if omicron is circulating.

South Korea considers rescheduling upcoming UN summit over omicron variant: Seoul

Moscow [Russia], November 30 (ANI/Sputnik): South Korea is revising plans to host several large international events in December, including the 2021 Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial, due to the emergence and spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the country’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The major UN conference was scheduled for December 7-8. Another important event – the fifth Korea-Africa forum involving the African Union (AU) – was supposed to take place from December 9-10 in Seoul. “As the Omicron virus has been rapidly spreading, the government is reconsidering the upcoming events scheduled in December,” the ministry’s deputy spokesperson, Ahn Eun-ju, told a briefing, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

The ministry is negotiating with the UN authorities and AU member states, as well as local health authorities on the matter, the spokesperson added. The new strain Omicron is believed to have originated in Southern Africa and has already been detected in a number of countries in other regions, leading to a new wave of travel bans and other health-related restrictions worldwide.

The World Health Organization identified Omicron as a variant of concern due to the high number of mutations, including 32 mutations in spike protein, likely making it more transmissible and dangerous. (ANI/Sputnik)