WASHINGTON—The new Omicron Covid-19 variant has added urgency for the World Trade Organization to act faster on vaccines, the group’s leader said Tuesday, as the variant disrupted contentious negotiations aimed at boosting vaccine supplies to poorer countries around the world.
Omicron’s emergence forced the WTO to postpone a key ministerial meeting scheduled to start Tuesday in Geneva, with the agenda including discussions over vaccinating billions of people in developing countries by suspending intellectual property rights for vaccines.
