The WHO warned rich countries cannot use boosters to escape the coronavirus as nations scrambled to contain Omicron surges, with France becoming one of the first nations to vaccinate children over five.
China, meanwhile, cracked down on the latest outbreak of the virus, shutting down the whole city of Xi’an.
And Britain, which reported a record 106,000 new cases in 24 hours, approved Pfizer’s jab for children aged five and up, as US health regulators authorized the company’s COVID pill for high-risk patients over 12.
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” said the World Health Organization’s Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Wednesday.
“Blanket booster programs are likely to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate,” he said.
Nor should a third dose of vaccine be seen as carte blanche, he added.
“Boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to go ahead with planned celebrations,” the WHO official added.
Unrestrained end-of-year celebrations could still prove to be a major source of new infections, the WHO warned.
The threat of the highly mutated Omicron variant is looming large over the end-of-year holidays, pushing many governments to roll out new restrictions and urge citizens to get vaccinated.
The latest data suggest Omicron does not cause more severe illness than previous variants, including Delta, but as soaring infection numbers threaten to overwhelm health systems, scientists warn it could still cause more deaths.
France on Wednesday opened vaccinations to children aged between five and 11, warning that daily infection rates could hit 100,000 by the end of the year, up from a weekly average of 54,000 daily cases.
“There is one certainty,” said Health Minister Olivier Veran. “Omicron is very contagious, it will spread, and no country will be spared.” But vaccines did have an effect on the variant, he stressed.
Britain approved Pfizer’s Covid jab for children aged five to 11, announced it would buy millions of Covid pills, and cut the isolation period for infected people from 10 to seven days with negative tests.
It also signed deals to acquire 4.25 million courses of Pfizer’s ritonavir and US rival Merck/MSD’s molnupiravir antiviral drugs, which have raised hope for an easy at-home treatment.
And Finland revealed plans to expand its vaccination program to children aged between five and 12, a day after announcing bars must close at 9:00 pm on Christmas Eve to fight record COVID infection levels.