On Thursday, one was held press conference under the auspices of the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) to inform about the latest findings on the properties of the omicron variant.
There, Professor Anne von Gottberg at the South African National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NICD)that they have now received indications that the omicron variant has one property in particular that the beta variant and the delta variant did not have.
– We followed the number of reinfections in the infection waves that were caused by the beta variant and the delta variant. Then we did not see an increase compared to what we had expected. Now, however, we see such an increase related to the spread of the omicron variant, says the professor.
– We believe that undergone infection does not protect as well against reinfection with the omicron variant. But hopefully one is still protected from serious illness, hospitalizations and death.
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Infectiousness and immunity
Experts around the world have discussed the figures from South Africa, which indicate that the omicron variant has significantly increased dispersibility. If this is the case, it may be because the variant is more contagious compared to other variants, or because it has a greater ability to circumvent immunity, or a combination of these two factors.
Von Gottberg believes that the preliminary analyzes indicate that the omicron variant has a greater ability to circumvent immunity.
– People talk about increased infectivity, but I think that this variant can be as contagious as the delta variant. On the other hand, it seems that a larger proportion of the population is susceptible to infection with this omicron variant. Immunity as a result of a past infection protected against the delta variant, but that does not seem to be the case now.
The professor says that it is difficult to quantify how many more reinfections are taking place now that the omicron variant is spreading in South Africa. This is because it is simply too early, and you need more time to observe the variant. But she emphasizes that there seem to be more reinfections than their models have predicted.
Dominates the analyzes
On Wednesday, the South African health authorities published a new one situation report which provides an insight into how the omicron variant affects the spread of infection in the country.
The first detected omicron case in South Africa dates back to 8 November. It was on November 23 that an alarm was sounded about the variant.
Furthermore, it is stated that as many as 74 per cent of the samples that were sequenced in South Africa in November turned out to be the omicron variant. Thus, the variant dominates the sample that has been examined.
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Omikron is ravaging
On Wednesday, the health authorities stated that it had been registered 8561 new cases of infection in the last 24 hours. On the same day the week before, 1275 new cases were registered. As many as 72 per cent of the new cases were registered in the province of Gauteng, where the omicron variant appears to be dominate the spread of infection.
In addition, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of positive samples, ie how large a proportion of those who test themselves test positive. From Tuesday to Wednesday, the number increased from 10.7 to 16.5 percent. This indicates that the increase in infection cannot be explained by increased test activity.
– The extent of the increase is worrying, says Michelle Groome at NICD The Guardian.
Mild disease progression has also been observed among people who have been diagnosed with the omicron variant. Groome emphasizes that it is still too early to say for sure whether the variant causes more serious illness.
– Many of the cases of infection occur among people in younger age groups, who are more likely to develop a mild course of the disease. We have to wait and see how this variant behaves in other age groups. In addition, it takes time to develop a serious course of the disease, so we will learn more about this in the coming weeks, she says.
