INTERNATIONAL: COVID-19 vaccines produced by China's Sinopharm and Sinovac can offer protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death related to the Omicron variant, a World Health Organization official has said on Tuesday.

China's Sinopharm and Sinovac can offer protection against severe while Omicron seemed to be slipping past antibodies, evidence was emerging that COVID-19 vaccines still provided some protection, by eliciting a second pillar of the immune response from T-cells, WHO Incident Manager Abdi Mahamud told Geneva-based journalists.

Sinovac's CoronaVac and state-owned Sinopharm's BBIBP-CorV vaccine are the two most-used vaccines in China and the leading COVID-19 shots exported by the country.

More evidence is emerging that Omicron is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants that would be causing severe pneumonia, Mahamud noted. This may be good news, but more research is still needed to confirm it, he added.

He has warned that Omicron would become a dominant strain within weeks in many places due to its high transmissibility, posing a threat to medical systems in countries and regions where a high proportion of the population remains unvaccinated.

Asked about whether an Omicron-specific vaccine was needed, Mahamud said it was too early to say, but he voiced doubts and stressed that the decision required global coordination and should not be left to manufacturers to decide alone.

Since the heavily mutated variant was first detected in November in South Africa, WHO data shows it has spread quickly and emerged in at least 128 countries and regions.

Meanwhile, more evidence is emerging that the Omicron coronavirus variant is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants, World Health Organization’s Incident Manager, Abdi Mahamud has announced on Tuesday that they see more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike the other ones, that could cause severe pneumonia, it could be "good news."

However, he added that Omicron's high transmissibility means it will become dominant within weeks in many places, posing a threat in countries where a high portion of the population remains unvaccinated.