By John Ikani
The Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain and reduces vaccine efficacy, but causes less severe symptoms according to early data, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.
Delta, first identified in India earlier this year, is currently the dominant variant of the novel coronavirus and is responsible for most of the world’s infections.
However, scientists and health experts have continued to raise concerns about Omicron which has over 50 mutations compared to the delta variant, including 26-32 in the spike protein, which enables the virus to enter human cells.
South Africa’s discovery of Omicron on November 24th prompted countries around the world to impose travel bans on southern African countries and reintroduce domestic restrictions to slow its spread.
As of 9 December, the WHO said this new variant has been reported in over 63 countries across the globe with early data suggesting that it also spreads faster than the delta variant.
“It is spreading faster than the delta variant in South Africa where delta circulation was low, but also appears to spread more quickly than the delta variant in other countries where the incidence of delta is high, such as in the United Kingdom,” the UN health agency noted in a technical brief.
“Given the currently available data, it is likely that omicron will outpace the delta variant where community transmission occurs,” it added.
Omicron infections have so far caused “mild” illness or asymptomatic cases, but the WHO said the data was insufficient to establish the variant’s clinical severity.
Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer/BioNTech last week said three doses of their jabs were still effective against Omicron.
Countries with sufficient vaccine supplies such as Britain and France have encouraged their populations to receive a third “booster” jab to fight Omicron.
