By Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG – A South African director at the communicable disease Institute said Tuesday that the Omicron coronavirus strain found in southern Africa might be the most suitable candidate to replace the contagious Delta virus.

Omicron was discovered in southern Africa. Countries have restricted travel to that region for the fear of spreading it quickly, even among vaccinated people. The World Health Organization has also warned of the high possibility of Omicron-related infection surges.

“We wondered what would outcompete Delta?” “That has been the question in terms of transmissibility, at least,” Adrian Puren (acting executive director) of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, told Reuters in an exclusive interview.

Omicron may prove more infectious than Delta. This could result in a sudden spike of infections, which can be a problem for hospitals.

Puren indicated that researchers should be able to determine within 4 weeks whether Omicron has the ability to overcome immunity or previous infection and if it causes more severe clinical symptoms than any other variants.

According to doctors treating South African COVID-19 sufferers, Omicron seems to produce mild symptoms such as dry cough, fever, and night sweats. However, experts caution against drawing any firm conclusions.

Puren stated that it was premature to predict whether Omicron would replace Delta in South Africa. Local scientists only have 87 Omicron sequences.

However, the rapid rise in cases, particularly in Gauteng, may indicate that displacement is already taking place.

Delta was responsible for a third round of COVID-19-related infections in South Africa. This wave peaked at 26,000 cases each day by early July. Omicron could trigger a fourth wave with daily infection rates exceeding 10,000 per day by Tuesday, from 2,270 Monday.

Anne von Gottberg (a clinical microbiologist at NICD) said infections seemed to be rising across the country.

An NICD presentation on Monday highlighted a high number of COVID-19 admitted infants under 2 years old as a concern. However, von Gottberg advised against tying that to Omicron.

It appears that some of these admissions may have occurred before Omicron was created. She said that we are seeing an increase of influenza cases over the past month. “So, it’s important to keep an eye out for other respiratory infections.”

“We’re looking at this data carefully but aren’t too certain that we can connect it to Omicron at the moment.”

South Africa is being praised for alerting WHO and the international scientific community to Omicron quickly — an admirable move, considering the serious damage multiple countries have done to South Africa’s important tourism sector.

Nearly 3 million COVID-19 infected people were reported by the country during the pandemic, and there have been over 89,000 deaths.