Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO), on Wednesday, said the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has spread to 57 nations and the number of patients needing hospitalization might increase with its spread.
In its weekly epidemiological report, the global healthcare watchdog said they needed more data to assess the severity of disease caused by the new, highly transmissible variant and whether its mutations might reduce protection from vaccine-derived immunity.
“Even if the severity is equal or potentially lower than for the Delta variant, and more people get infected, it might increase hospitalizations. There will be a time lag between an increase in the incidence of cases and an increase in the incidence of deaths,” it said, the media reported.
The WHO had, on November 26, categorized the Omicron variant, first detected in southern Africa, as a Variant of Concern (VOC). It is the fifth SARS-CoV-2 strain to carry such a designation.
The number of reported Covid-19 cases in South Africa doubled in the week ended December 5 to over 62,000 and “very large” increases in incidence have been reported in Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and Lesotho, the WHO said.
The spread of Omicron, coupled with enhanced testing and low vaccination rates, may also have played a role, it added.
About the risk of reinfection, the WHO said: “Preliminary analysis suggests that the mutations present in the Omicron variant may reduce the neutralizing activity of antibodies resulting in reduced protection from natural immunity.”
They need more data to assess whether the mutations present on the Omicron variant may cause reduced protection from vaccine-derived immunity and data on vaccine effectiveness, including the use of additional vaccination doses, it said.
The Omicron variant can partially evade the protection from two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, the research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday, reporting the results of a small study.