The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending governments mandate wearing masks on “long-haul” flights to stop the spread of the new COVID-19 omicron sub-variant XBB.1.5..Until governments put in mask mandates, the WHO suggests airline travellers wear masks voluntarily..WHO European officials held a press conference — as the new XBB.1.5 sub-variant is growing in Europe — to recommend masking on planes again..The WHO’s European Senior Emergency Officer Catherine Smallwood said long-haul flights should recommend masks for anyone arriving from areas with COVID-19 outbreaks..“This should be a recommendation issued to passengers arriving from anywhere where there is widespread COVID-19 transmission,” said Smallwood..United States health officials said the XBB.1.5 sub-variant is the “most transmissible” omicron sub-variant and accounts for 27.6% of U.S. COVID-19 cases for the week ending January 7. .Smallwood suggested countries should consider pre-departure COVID-19 testing again, especially for areas with high COVID-19 cases to not get “blindsided” by a surge..“Countries need to look at the evidence base for pre-departure testing,” said Smallwood.. COVID-19 Button .Smallwood said that any “travel measures” need to be implemented without being discriminatory..“Our [WHO] opinion is that travel measures should be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner,” said Smallwood..Currently, Smallwood does not recommend testing passengers from the United States..The WHO recommends countries use genomic surveillance and target passengers from other countries as long as it does “not divert resources away from the domestic surveillance systems. Other examples include wastewater monitoring systems that can look at wastewater around points of entry such as airports.”.The XBB.1.5 is an offshoot of XBB and another omicron descendant detected in October, the most contagious COVID-19 variant and now the most dominant..The WHO will not say if XBB.1.5 can cause a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections around the world. However, the WHO recommends the current vaccines to “protect against severe symptoms, hospitalization and death, experts say.”
