The Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) head, John Nkengasong, on Thursday said data from South Africa that suggests the Omicron coronavirus variant is 70% to 80% less severe than the Delta variant should not be extrapolated to all countries, reported Reuters.
First detected in South Africa in November, the Omicron variant has already spread to about 90 countries across the world.
Nkengasong said the data may not be applicable to all countries and that it should be interpreted with a lot of caution.
“We should interpret the data from South Africa with a lot of caution,” the Africa CDC head told an online media briefing. “This is early days and public health practice is local.”
Nkengasong said that some factors such as the age of the South African people infected with Omicron could be playing a part in what was being observed in the country. He added that different vaccination rates among the countries may lead to different outcomes.
According to the Africa CDC, Omicron COVID-19 variant cases have been reported in 22 African countries so far. Six African countries that have reported Omicron COVID-19 variant cases during the past week include Burkina Faso, Togo, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Mauritius.
Nkengasong said the Omicron variant is spreading very rapidly in Africa.
Earlier this month, the African Union called for an immediate end to travel restrictions imposed on some African countries, saying that the restrictions penalize governments for sharing timely data about Omicron with international health regulations.
The African body said travel and entry bans limit the free movement of people and goods, imposing an immediate and significant impact on the development of African countries.
The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in Africa crossed 9,259,813 and the death toll stood at 226,536 as of Thursday morning, according to the Africa CDC. South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Ethiopia have reported the most cases on the continent.
