The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be no worse than other COVID-19 strains, scientists from the WHO and the US told reporters, although they added that more research is needed to judge its severity.
The assessments came as global concern grew over the variant, which has prompted dozens of nations to impose more border restrictions and raised the possibility of lockdowns.
While it is likely more transmissible than previous variants, Omicron is also “highly unlikely” to completely evade vaccine protections, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Tuesday.
Photo: AFP
“The preliminary data doesn’t indicate that this is more severe,” Ryan said. “In fact, if anything, the direction is towards less severity.”
Ryan also said there was no sign that Omicron could fully sidestep protections provided by existing COVID-19 vaccines.
“We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all the variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalization... There’s no reason to expect that it wouldn’t be so” for Omicron, he said, citing initial data from South Africa, where the strain was first reported.
However, Ryan said it was possible that existing vaccines might prove less effective against Omicron, which counts more than 30 mutations on the spike protein that dots the surface of the coronavirus and allows it to invade cells.
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci echoed the WHO’s view, saying that Omicron did not appear worse than prior strains based on early indications and was possibly milder.
The new variant is “clearly highly transmissible,” very likely more so than Delta, the current dominant global strain, Fauci told reporters.
“It almost certainly is not more severe than Delta,” he said. “There is some suggestion that it might even be less severe.”
However, he said it was important to not over-interpret the data, because the populations being followed skewed young and were less likely to become hospitalized.
Severe disease can also take weeks to develop, he said.
“Then as we get more infections throughout the rest of the world, it might take longer to see what’s the level of severity,” he said.
The detection of the first Omicron cases last month coincided with surges in infection numbers across the world.
As EU health ministers met to find ways to coordinate their response, Norway announced that it would tighten restrictions.
It followed a suspected outbreak of Omicron last week among dozens of partygoers who had all been vaccinated and led to new restrictions in and around the capital, Oslo.
Sweden said that it would launch measures to combat the virus.
About 4,000 people protested in Brussels against a plan by the Belgian government to make vaccines compulsory for health workers from early next year.
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