WEF Says Will Continue to Prepare for Annual Meeting in Davos Despite Omicron Concerns

GENEVA (Sputnik) - The World Economic Forum (WEF) is continuing with the preparations for the annual meeting in Davos in January 2022 despite the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus strain, the WEF press service said on Tuesday.

"We have a robust and practical health policy in place for the Annual Meeting and will continue preparations. We will continue to closely monitor the situation," the WEF said.

In 2021, the annual meeting of the WEF in Davos was cancelled due to the pandemic and the restrictive measures introduced by the Swiss government. In 2022, the WEF in Davos is scheduled for January 17-21.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus was first identified in South Africa last week and the World Health Organization has classified it as a variant of concern, as its high number of mutations possibly makes it more transmissible and dangerous

In response, Switzerland banned flights from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa starting November 26. People arriving from countries that have reported cases of the new strain will be now required to show a negative coronavirus test result, even if they had been vaccinated or previously recovered from COVID-19, and will be placed in a 10-day quarantine.