‘Omikron variant 500 percent more contagious than Delta’

The new Omikron variant of the coronavirus may be 500 percent more contagious than the now dominant Delta variant. So says the leading American epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding. The new variant was first noticed in South Africa, on Friday a first infection with the Omikron variant was detected in Belgium.

⚠️My god—the new #B11259 variant being possibly ~500% more competitively infectious is the most staggering stat yet. Also, #NuVariant has more than >2x the number of bad spike mutations than Delta. Here’s an updated ????????

Model by @JPWeiland matches up with graph by @jburnmurdoch pic.twitter.com/SFvFEbD7QO

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 26, 2021

What makes the new variant so dangerous is that it carries no fewer than 32 mutations in the spike protein, the part that the body recognizes as a virus that must be combated, after which the immune system goes to work. The corona vaccines also contain the spike protein as an antigen, which enables the body to make antibodies. Due to the many mutations in Omikron, there is a good chance that the immune system does not know what to do with it, so that the virus can bypass the built-up immunity – through vaccination or a previous infection. Scientists therefore also refer to it as ‘the worst variant so far’.

Omikron was first identified in the South African province of Gauteng. Of the positive corona tests taken between 14 and 23 November, 70 percent turned out to be Omikron. An indication that the variant is rapidly spreading and crowding out other variants. On Friday, several countries, including the EU Member States, imposed a no-fly zone for flights from southern Africa. Several hundred travelers are currently detained at Schiphol pending their test results. Saturday morning it was announced that 1 in 7 travelers from South Africa is infected. It is not yet clear whether this is indeed Omikron.

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