Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London said it was “extremely unlikely” that current vaccines wouldn’t work, noting they are effective against numerous other variants.Įven though some of the genetic changes in omicron appear worrying, it’s still unclear if they will pose a public health threat. It will likely take weeks to sort out if omicron is more infectious and if vaccines are still effective against it. So far, there is no indication the variant causes more severe disease. Scientists know that omicron is genetically distinct from previous variants including the beta and delta variants, but don't know if these genetic changes make it any more transmissible or dangerous. Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, described omicron as “the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen,” including potentially worrying changes never before seen all in the same virus. Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, said the data so far suggest the new variant has mutations “consistent with enhanced transmissibility,” but said that “the significance of many of the mutations is still not known.” Some experts say that could mean that vaccine makers may have to adapt their products at some point. The variant appears to have a high number of mutations - about 30 - in the coronavirus’ spike protein, which could affect how easily it spreads to people. So far, the main difference with other variants appears to be that there may be an increased risk of reinfection with omicron - in other words, that people who’ve already had COVID-19 could get reinfected more easily. WHY ARE SCIENTISTS WORRIED ABOUT THIS NEW VARIANT? It said there's no evidence - yet - that COVID vaccines, tests and treatments are any less effective against the new version. “There is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with omicron are different from those from other variants,” WHO said.
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Now, up to 90% of the new cases in Gauteng are caused by it, according to Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. It said it wasn't clear if infection with omicron causes more severe disease, even as it cited data from South Africa showing rising rates of hospitalization there - but that could just be because more people are getting infected with COVID-19, not specifically omicron.įrom just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks, South Africa saw the number of new daily cases rocket to more than 3,200 on Saturday, most in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province. It said it wasn't clear whether omicron is more transmissible - more easily spread between people - compared to other variants like the highly transmissible delta variant. health agency issued a statement on omicron that boiled down to: We don't know much yet.