Omicron Covid variant poses very high risk, global spread likely
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On April 28th, 2021, a doctor examines Covid-19 patients in the intensive care unit at the German community hospital.
RONNY HARTMANN | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON — The omicron Covid variant is likely to spread further and poses a “very high” global risk, according to the World Health Organization, which warned Monday that surges of Covid infections caused by the variant of concern could have “severe consequences” for some areas.
The WHO stated Monday that Omicron could be spread further if there are mutations which may give immunity escape and transmissibility advantages. technical brief to its 194 member states.
“These characteristics may lead to Covid-19 future surges. These could potentially have devastating consequences, depending upon a variety of factors such as where the surges might occur. Global risk associated with the new VOC [variant of concern]Omicron was deemed to be very high,” U.N. agency for health said.
According to Monday’s report, it stated that the variant is highly divergent and contains a large number of mutations. Some of these are troubling and could be related with higher transmissibility and immune escape potential.
Unknown unknowns
It said that there were still many uncertainties regarding the variant and repeated this sentiment Monday.
Experts don’t yet know how transmissible this variant is, and whether there are any increases due to immunity escape, intrinsically increased transmissibility or either.
Second, it is uncertain how vaccines can protect against transmission, infection and disease, including death, in different severity levels. The third is the uncertainty about whether the variant will present with different severity profiles.
WHO stated that it would take weeks to discover how the variant could affect diagnostics as well as therapeutics and vaccines. The strain may be more at risk for reinfection according to preliminary evidence.
Learn more A heavily mutated Covid variant emerges in southern Africa: Here’s what we know so far
The variant may be spreading faster in South Africa than the previous versions, and could potentially trigger another wave of infection. according to an analysis by the Financial Times.
The South African doctor who raised concerns about the strain first described the symptoms as mild.
Learn more: South African doctor who first spotted the omicron Covid variant explains the symptoms
It’s very important to remember that, so far, there have only been a small number of cases reported around the world — in several southern African countries and a smattering of cases In the U.K., France, Israel, Scotland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong, but none yet in the U.S. — so it could take a while to fully understand what specific symptoms, if any, are attributable to the omicron variant on a wider scale.
Although it is too soon to determine the global health impact of the new Covid-19 variant, international communities have already witnessed several highly virulent Covid-19 variants. The first was with the “alpha”, then followed by the “delta”, which is the current dominant strain.
Covid vaccines have been a great help in reducing severe infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. New variants of these vaccines are being closely examined to determine if and how they could impact vaccine efficacy.
Mitigation plans
WHO advised member states to intensify surveillance and sequence efforts in order to better understand variants including omicron and increase testing within the community to see if it is present.
The document also urged member countries to speed up Covid vaccinations, especially for high-priority groups.
Global markets were shaken by news about a new variant last Friday, but European markets were calmer climbed on Monday morning. Already, the region is facing a severe surge in infection due to the delta variant. This has put pressure on the health care systems in many countries including Germany and The Netherlands.
According to the WHO, countries should prepare mitigation measures in order to deal with an increase in Covid casesloads.
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