COVID-19: ‘omicron’ is the new variant with the highest risk of reinfection, warns WHO

The group of experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) met this Friday to analyze the impact of the new variant of the coronavirus detected in South Africa determined that it is a “risk variant”, Possibly more contagious, and baptized it with the Greek letter omicron.

The WHO recognizes that some of the new mutations of the omicron variant seem to suggest an even greater transmission capacity than previous strains, with cases detected “in almost all South African provinces”.

“The variant has been detected at a faster rate than in previous surges in the number of infections, which could indicate that it has an advantage when it comes to spreading“WHO experts underlined in a statement.

They did not indicate for now if the new variant is more or less resistant to anti-COVID vaccines, but they did point out that diagnostic tests of the disease with PCR seem to continue to be valid to detect it.

These experts, meeting as an emergency in the so-called Advisory Group of Experts on the Evolution of Viruses, warned that the appearance of this variant, first confirmed in a specimen collected on November 9, has coincided with a sharp increase in infections in South Africa. .

The omicron variant, which has led many countries to suspend flights to southern Africa, worries about the high number of mutations it presents, since in just two weeks about thirty have already been detected, with confirmed cases not only in South Africa but also in neighboring Botswana, Hong Kong or Belgium.

The risk variants are followed more intensively by the WHO and global laboratories, and in addition to omicron there are four others: alpha (first detected in the United Kingdom), beta (also in South Africa), gamma (Brazil) and delta ( India).

These variants are usually associated with a higher transmission speed, although in recent months the delta, more contagious than the three previously detected, became the dominant one, to the point that in the latest laboratory analyzes it appears present in 99.8 % of new global cases.

The WHO advisory group did not issue new recommendations on travel restrictions or other preventive health measures, but it did ask the international scientific community to continue follow-up work on this and new variants.

In addition, at the individual level, it is recalled the taking of already known measures against previous variants, which include the use of masks, hand hygiene, physical distancing, good interior ventilation, avoiding crowded places and the same anti-COVID vaccination.