Scientists are predicting that a rise in new Covid-19 infections around the world is imminent because of ‘Kraken’, the name of a new variant of the virus. Officially called XBB.1.5, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it is an Omicron subvariant that is fast spreading in US, UK, India, and multiple European countries.

Menson, who is also a fellow of think tank Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has said Kraken’s fast-spreading symptoms are not different from those caused by other Covid-19 variants.

Will Vaccines Protect Against the New Kraken Variant? WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said recently that Covid-19 and its associated problems will not go away.

“The world cannot close its eyes and hope this virus will go away. It won’t,” he said on January 11, 2023 during a media briefing. But scientists say even as vaccines do not prevent people from being infected multiple times, they help to prevent serious illness.

CSJ’s Menson agrees, and says for the new ‘Kraken’ variant, vaccination still provides protection, even though some scientists believe it is more immune-invasive than other variants.

“To protect oneself against the ‘Kraken’ variant, we would need to follow the same public health advise as for other variants,” he told YEN.com.gh. According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) there are 12 active cases of Coronavirus in Ghana, with a total of 21,400,939 vaccine doses administered.

Meanwhile in a separate story, YEN.com.gh reported that health minister Kweku Agyeman-Manu announced plans by Ghana to send registered nurses to the United Kingdom for cash. The minister told Parliament on December 5, 2022, that Ghana could make £1,000 for each nurse sent to the UK. He disclosed that there are ongoing bilateral talks between Ghana and UK to introduce a similar deal already in existence between Ghana and Barbados.

Credit; Yen.com