There is no indication that Omicron causes more severe disease than previous COVID variants, and existing vaccines should protect people who contract it against the worst outcomes of the disease, a top WHO official told AFP on Tuesday.

“We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all the variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalisation, and there’s no reason to expect that it wouldn’t be so for Omicron, Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies director, told AFP in an interview, stressing that more research was needed.