The World Health Organisation's (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters that while the new coronavirus variant Omicron appeared to be very transmissible, the right response was to be prepared, cautious and not panic.

The WHO has urged countries to boost healthcare capacity and vaccinate their people to fight a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, saying travel curbs could buy time but alone were not the answer.

“How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we're in a different situation to a year ago,” Swaminathan said during an interview at the Reuters Next conference.

While the emergence of the new variant was unwelcome, she said the world was much better prepared given the development of vaccines since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.