A total of 57 countries have already detected cases of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, although many of them without symptoms or mild, highlights the World Health Organization (WHO) in a report where alert about the high possibility of reinfection which appears to have the new strain.
The organization’s weekly epidemiological report stresses that the 212 confirmed cases in 18 countries of the European Union (EU) were in people with mild or even asymptomatic symptoms.
The WHO warns, however, that although the omicron variant may cause fewer severe cases than the delta (currently predominant) could increase hospitalizations and deaths if, as is feared, it is more contagious and causes more infections in general.
In the last 60 days, of the 900,000 COVID-19 cases analyzed by the GISAID global laboratory network more than 99% are still caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus, and only 713 (0.1%) belong to the omicron.
However, that number is considerably higher than indicated by the WHO a week ago (when GISAID had identified 14 cases of omicron) and the variant already outnumbers others previously detected, such as alpha or gamma.
The WHO cites forecasts from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which expects omicron to become the dominant variant in the EU (more than 50% of cases) between January and March 2022, depending on the level of transmissibility. that I end up having.
The WHO highlights the strong increase in cases in southern African countries, the region where omicron was first detected: not only South Africa, where cases have doubled in a week (111% more), but Eswatini (1,990%), Zimbabwe (1,361%), Mozambique (1,207%), Namibia (681%) and Lesotho (219%).
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