geneva the who said tuesday that while blanket travel bans would not stop the spread of the omicron variant covidvulnerable people including the over60s should postpone plans to travel abroadomicron the new covid19 variant of concern which the world health organization says poses a very high risk globally has prompted many countries to shut their bordersblanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods the who said in a travel advice statement on omicronin addition they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivising countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing datafirst reported to the who less than a week ago after being detected in southern africa earlier this month omicron has already appeared in several countriesthe who noted the increasing number of governments introducing travel measures including temporarily banning arrivals from countries where the variant has been foundthe who said that as of sunday 56 countries were reportedly implementing travel measures aimed at potentially delaying the importation of the new variantit is expected that the omicron variant will be detected in an increasing number of countries as national authorities step up their surveillance and sequencing activities it saidpersons who are unwell or at risk of developing severe covid19 disease and dying including people 60 years of age or older or those with comorbidities eg heart disease cancer and diabetes should be advised to postpone travel said the whothe who advised countries to apply an evidenceinformed and riskbased approach when implementing travel measuresthe un health agency said national authorities in countries of departure transit and arrival could apply mitigation measures that might delay or reduce the exportation and importation of the variantthey could include screening passengers testing and quarantineall measures should be commensurate with the risk timelimited and applied with respect to travellers dignity human rights and fundamental freedomsthe who said that essential international travel including for humanitarian missions repatriations and transport of vital supplies should always be prioritised during the pandemicearlier tuesday who chief tedros adhanom ghebreyesus told member states to keep calm and take rational steps in response to omicronwe call on all member states to take rational proportional riskreduction measures he saidthe global response must be calm coordinated and coherenttedros stressed that it remains unclear how dangerous the variant iswe still have more questions than answers about the effect of omicron on transmission severity of disease and the effectiveness of tests therapeutics and vaccines he saidthe who chief said it was understandable that countries wanted to protect their citizens against a variant that we dont yet fully understandbut i am equally concerned that several member states are introducing blunt blanket measures that are not evidencebased or effective on their own and which will only worsen inequities