The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said the risk posed by the Omicron variant is still very high after the number of coronavirus cases shot up by 11 percent globally last week, reported CGTN Africa.
In its weekly update, the WHO said Omicron has led to rapid virus spikes in several countries, including in countries where it has already overtaken the previously-dominant Delta variant.
“The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high,” the UN health agency said.
The WHO said the Omicron variant is spreading quite faster as compared to the Delta variant. The health body said Omicron has a doubling time of two to three days and that there has been a rapid increase in the number of cases in countries including Britain and the United States, where it has already become the dominant variant.
“The rapid growth rate is likely to be a combination of both immune evasion and intrinsic increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant,” the WHO said.
It also highlighted the 29 percent decrease in case numbers reported in South Africa, the country which first identified the variant.
The UN health body said early data collected from Britain, Denmark, and South Africa, suggested a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared to Delta. But it added that more information was required to understand Omicron’s severity in terms of clinical markers, including the number of fatalities, and the use of oxygen, and mechanical ventilation.
It said more data was also needed to find out how the severity might be impacted by previous COVID-19 infection or vaccination.
The WHO said it is expected that corticosteroids and interleukin 6 receptor blockers will work effectively in the management of patients with severe diseases. Preliminary data, however, suggest that monoclonal antibodies may be less able to neutralize the Omicron variant.
