Omicron risk remains high; variant surpasses Delta in UK, US: 7 things WHO says
Omicron has become the dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States and the United Kingdom, the World Health Organization said in its weekly update.
The World Health Organization has categorised the risks related to the Omicron variant as very high in its Covid-19 weekly epidemiological update released on Wednesday. South Africa, the country which first detected the variant on November 24, is seeing a decline in the number of Omicron cases, the WHO report said, possibly indicating that the surge is over for the time being.
Here are 7 new observations made by the WHO in its weekly report:
1. The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high.
2. Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of 2-3 days
3. Omicron cases are increasing rapidly and the variant has become the dominant strain in the United Kingdom and the United States.
4. A decline in the incidence of cases has now been observed in South Africa.
5. The rapid growth rate is likely to be a combination of both immune-evasion and intrinsic increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant
6. Early data from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Denmark suggests there is a reduced risk of hospitalisation for the Omicron compared to the Delta variant.
7. Preliminary data suggest that monoclonal antibodies may be less able to neutralise the Omicron variant.
The overall number of Covid-19 cases increased by 11% in the week between December 20 and 26 as compared to the previous week, with the US region reporting the largest increase (39%), followed by the African region (7%). The South-East Asia region continued to report a decrease in the new cases, the WHO observed.
Though Omicron is leading to fewer hospitalisation, Covid-19 hospitalisations in New Tork state are accelerating at a rate that hasn't been seen since the early days of the pandemic, reports said. On Tuesday the state said hospitalizations rose by 647 to 6,173, marking the largest daily increase since early April 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The total number of New Yorkers hospitalized with the virus remains far below last year’s peak of almost 19,000.