Covid-19: Omicron variant continues to spread

Scientists have said that the latest variant of Covid-19, Omicron, appears to spread more than twice as fast as the Delta variant. The research has not yet been peer reviewed.

In this edition of Weekend, we speak to the Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation, Dr Soumya Swaminathan.

Also in the programme: the parents of a fifteen-year-old student who killed four classmates in a school shooting, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter; and Iraq has begun repatriating hundreds of its citizens.

Joining Julian Worricker to discuss these and other issues are Amber Murrey, a political geographer and professor at the University of Oxford, and Dominic Jermey, Director-General of the Zoological Society of London and a former UK Ambassador to Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.

(Photo: COVID-19 vaccinations are pictured at a government-run clinic, in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa.The South African government is considering making Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory as the new Omicron variant cases increase across the country. EPA/Kim Ludbrook)