Omicron has been circulating in southern regions of Africa for most of November and although it looks ominous and has jumped continents, there have been no official reports of deaths yet.
Within days of each other, cases were identified first in Botswana, next in Hong Kong and then in South Africa.
So far, this mutant strain is the most divergent variant of the pandemic, but it is too early to predict if it will outsmart existing vaccines and overpower delta, currently the dominant variant in the world.
Omicron is highly transmissible, can evade vaccine mechanisms and immunity caused by previous infection, but seems to cause only mild to moderate disease. It has not yet caused massive hospital admissions in South Africa and does not appear to be virulent, although that could change.
As it has been identified much earlier than previous variants, it could be too early to judge its virulence.
Doctors on the frontlines in South Africa say if there is no spike in admissions in the next 14 days, Omicron is unlikely to result in the catastrophic hospitalisations and deaths seen in previous waves.
Although there have been COVID-19 deaths reported in South Africa, none have been attributed to Omicron.
On available data, which may be revised, the variant was circulating in the first week of this month, and the first sample was collected in Botswana on Tuesday, November 9.
Two days later, this sample was sequenced in South Africa and found to be significantly different to delta. When two more Botswana samples had the same novel variant, doctors in South Africa began referring to it colloquially as “the Botswana variant”.
That same day, November 11, a man aged 36, who had been double vaccinated with Pfizer, landed in Hong Kong. He had travelled from South Africa, via Qatar. After passing airport checks, he went into routine hotel quarantine.
Two days later, he tested positive to the virus and was taken to hospital. His brief stay in quarantine overlapped with man in the room opposite, who had not been in southern Africa and who, five days later, also tested positive and went to hospital.
By Monday, November 22, Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection reported that both cases had identical genetic sequences and that case two might have been infected when case one opened the door while unmasked. It said the airflow in the corridor was unsatisfactory.
There have been no reports of the new variant among the passengers on the flights between South Africa, Qatar and Hong Kong.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
