Omicron quickly overtaking Delta globally in terms of circulation: WHO

Omicron is quickly overtaking the Delta variant of Covid19 and becoming dominant around the world a senior WHO official has warned with the global health agency cautioning that there is increasing evidence Omicron is able to evade immunity but has less disease severity as compared to other variantsIt could take some time for Omicron to overtake Delta in some countries because it depends on the level of circulation of the Delta variant in those countries Infectious Disease Epidemiologist and Covid19 Technical Lead at the World Health Organisation WHO Maria Van Kerkhove said on TuesdayldquoOmicron has been detected in all countries where we have good sequencing and its likely to be in all countries around the world It is quickly in terms of its circulation overtaking Delta And so Omicron is becoming the dominant variant that is being detectedrdquo Kerkhove said during a virtual questions and answers sessionShe further cautioned that even though there is some information that Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta ldquoits not a mild diseaserdquo because ldquopeople are still being hospitalized for Omicronrdquo The Covid19 Weekly Epidemiological Update released by the WHO said that over 15 million new Covid19 cases were reported globally in the week of January 39 a 55 per cent increase as compared to the previous week when about 95 million cases were reportedOver 43000 new deaths were reported in the past week As of 9 January over 304 million confirmed Covid19 cases and over 54 million deaths have been reported The highest numbers of new cases were reported from the US 4610359 new cases a 73 per cent increase France 1597203 new cases a 46 per cent increase the UK 1217258 new cases a 10 per cent increase Italy 1014358 new cases a 57 per cent increase and India 638872 new cases a 524 per cent increase the update saidKerkhove said the 15 million cases reported in the last seven days are a ldquorecord high in this pandemicrdquo and are an ldquounderestimaterdquo given the challenges in surveillance around the world and Covid19 selftests at home that are not registered The WHO update said that the Omicron variant has a substantial growth advantage and is rapidly replacing other variantsldquoThis variant has been shown to have a shorter doubling time as compared to previous variants with transmission occurring even amongst those vaccinated or with a history of prior SARSCoV2 infection there is increasing evidence that this variant is able to evade immunityrdquo the update said It said that in terms of disease severity there is growing evidence that the Omicron variant is less severe as compared to other variantsCiting a nonpeerreviewed retrospective cohort study from the US the update said the findings suggest that while the absolute number of cases and hospitalisations among children are currently increasing in the US the risk of hospitalisation still remains lower compared to other age groups during the period when Omicron is circulating as compared to the period when the Delta variant was dominant The update also noted that since December six studies have provided evidence of reduced vaccine effectiveness VE of Covid19 vaccines against the Omicron variantWhile early VE estimates against the Omicron variant should be interpreted with caution due to potential biases these preliminary results provide evidence of reduced overall effectiveness of vaccines against the Omicron variant with greater declines in effectiveness with increasing time since vaccination relative to Delta While a booster vaccination appears to improve VE against infection and hospitalisation due to the Omicron variant more data are needed to assess both the magnitude and duration of the protectionrdquo the update saidThe WHO Technical Advisory Group on Covid19 Vaccine Composition TAGCOVAC said that as coronavirus evolves the composition of current Covid19 vaccines may need to be updated to ensure that ldquoCovid19 vaccines continue to provide WHOrecommended levels of protection against infection and disease by VOCs including Omicron and future variantsrdquo Kerkhove added that as Omicron enters and circulates among vulnerable populations ldquowe will see increase in hospitalisations and deaths So please treat this virus as seriously as it needs to be treated The narrative that its the common cold is not true The narrative that it is just mild is not true So we have to really fight against it Itrsquos not the time to give uprdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever