Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The world can breathe a little easier. Leading infectious disease expert from the United States (US) Dr Anthony Fauci said that early indications of infection cases due to the new variant of the corona virus B.1.1.529 or Omicron were no more dangerous than other variants.
“While it’s too early to really make a definitive statement about it, so far there doesn’t seem to be a major degree of severity,” Fauci said. Al Jazeera.
“So far, the signal is a bit encouraging. But we really have to be careful before we make any decisions that it’s not too severe, or it really doesn’t cause severe disease, like Delta.”
While World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said while Omicron proved to be less dangerous than Delta, it remained problematic.
“Even if we have a large number of mild cases, some of them will require hospitalization,” he said. “They have to go into the ICU and some people are going to die… We don’t want to see that happen on top of an already difficult situation with Delta circulating globally.”
US health officials say the variant has spread to about a third of US states. But it’s not as vicious as the Delta version, which is driving more than 99% percent of new cases and a spike in hospitalizations.
At least 15 US states have reported cases of Omicron, namely California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Most cases occur in fully vaccinated individuals with mild symptoms, although the status of booster injections of some patients is unknown.
Reports from South Africa, where the new variant was first reported, show no drastic or alarming increase in hospitalization rates for Covid patients.
Medical experts have in recent days underlined that South Africa’s population is likely to be young and that more severe cases could emerge in the coming weeks.
Laboratory tests are being carried out to determine if Omicron is more contagious than other strains, is resistant to immunity from vaccination, and if the infection is more severe. The results will only come out in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers are looking for a quick way to modify their vaccines to make them immune to this new variant.
Moderna Inc has said it could seek US approval for the updated vaccine as soon as March. US government officials have also been working with vaccine makers Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson on a new vaccine.
Now cases of the Omicron variant have so far been confirmed in about 40 countries.
(tfa/tfa)
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