South African disease expert says Omicron Covid variant may outpace Delta

Omicron’s discovery has caused global alarm, as countries limit travel from southern Africa for fear that it could spread rapidly to vaccinated populations and World Health Organization Having said that it carries a high risk of increasing the infection.

Adrian Pooran, acting executive director of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said: “We thought what would beat Delta? It’s always been a question, at least in terms of transmission, … This is the special edition version.” ), told Reuters in an interview.

If Omicron proves to be even more permeable than the delta version, it could lead to a sharp spike in infections that could strain hospitals.

Pooran said scientists should know within four weeks to what extent Omicron can shield immunity from vaccines or prior infection, and whether it leads to worse clinical symptoms than other types.

Anecdotal accounts from doctors treating South African COVID-19 patients said Omicron caused mild symptoms, including dry cough, fever and night sweats, but experts caution against drawing firm conclusions .

Pooran said it was too early to say whether Omicron was displacing the delta in South Africa, as local scientists have so far produced only 87 sequences of Omicron.

But the fact that cases are starting to rise rapidly, especially in the most populous Gauteng province, is a sign that some displacement is already taking place.

Delta triggered a third wave of COVID-19 infections in South Africa that peaked in early July at more than 26,000 cases per day. Omicron is expected to start a fourth wave, which saw daily infections rise from around 2,270 on Monday to above 10,000 by the end of the week.

Anne von Gottberg, clinical microbiologist at the NICD, said that it appears that infections are increasing across the country.

On Monday, a NICD presentation flagged a large number of COVID-19 admissions in infants under two years of age as an area of ​​concern. But von Gottberg cautioned against associating it with Omicron for now.

“It looks like some of those penetrations may have started before the emergence of Omicron. We’re also seeing that there was an increase in influenza cases in the last month or so, and so we’re really careful to watch.” other respiratory infections,” she said.

“We’re looking at the data very, very carefully, but at this point I’m not quite sure we can definitively link it to Omicron.”

South Africa has been praised for alerting the global scientific community and the WHO to Omicron so quickly – a brave move given the damage the travel restrictions imposed by several countries, including the UK, would hit its vital tourism sector.

The country has reported nearly 3 million COVID-19 infections and more than 89,000 deaths during the pandemic, the highest on the African continent.