In the weekly epidemiological report, the organization highlights that although most cases of the Omicron variant identified since November in more than 70 countries are associated with travel, there are already sources of infection in the community.
In the document, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that the delta variant, which by mid-year was already dominant in the world and before Omicron reached 99.8% of serial cases, had fallen to 99.2% in the last measurement made by the scientist. A network of GISAID laboratories that cooperate with the organization.
Of the 879,000 cases that the grid sequenced in vitro in the last 60 days, the vast majority (872,000) were still delta variant, but μM actually represented 3,755 cases (0.4%), when a week ago this percentage was 0.1%, indicating rapid progression. .
The report adds that current evidence indicates that the Omicron variant has evolutionary advantages over Delta when it comes to transmission and that it does so faster.
Such a situation was observed not only in countries with a relatively low incidence of delta cases, such as South Africa, the first country in which the new variant was discovered, but also in other countries where deltas were at high levels, such as the United Kingdom, adds WHO.
In its review of Omicron, the World Health Organization asserts that the variant appears to affect the efficacy and transmission of vaccines against infection, while also increasing the risk of reinfection.
Preliminary independent studies by the World Health Organization have shown that Omicron reduces protection against reinfection with four major coronavirus vaccines, those made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen).
However, the variant does not appear to affect the effectiveness of PCR tests for detecting the virus, which may help monitor its development. The World Health Organization states that treatments against acute or critical cases of COVID-19 “must continue to be effective” against Omicron.
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