Ómicron puts several Pacific countries at risk
The irruption ofThe omicron variant of covid-19 threatens to collapse the health systems of the Pacific island countrieswhere after avoiding the virus several nations recently decreed strict confinements.
“These new outbreaks in the small islands of the Pacific threaten health systems that are fragile and struggle to manage the needs” of its inhabitants, said Katie Greenwood, head of the Pacific delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Since the end of the year several Pacific countries have registered major outbreaks of the virus as a result of the reopening of borders to resume tourismone of the key economic sectors in the region and after remaining isolated since the start of the pandemic.
The Solomon Islands registered its first community outbreak of covid-19 at the end of December and since then it has accumulated some 1,200 infectionsincluding 9 deaths, according to data from the World Health Organization.
Fiji, the largest economy in the area, faces its third wave of infections since Christmas with more than a thousand cases daily, and accumulates some 62,400 infections and 798 deaths.
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