MORE : Covid cases fall again to 26,144 as UK records another 71 virus deaths MORE : Euro 2020 final ‘supercharged’ Covid cases in North East, says health chief ‘The government can’t be complacent, they must continue their support for the development of the next generation of vaccines and prioritise the reduction of infections here at home to reduce the possibility of another domestic variant emerging.’ the emergence of a doomsday variant of COVID-19 with the potential to. Professor Martin McKee, an expert in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: ‘These stark words from the Government’s own advisors underlines what many of us have been warning about and confirms there are still obstacles to overcome. for a disease that could prove more lethal than the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Other experts have warned that the paper, which was released by the Government advisory group to boost its transparency, should be taken seriously. 3.Don't rule out that Covid leaked from lab, says top Chinese scientist However, it is important to remember that all variants of concern so far have had the ability to cause severe disease or death in some instances, and it is still being investigated. We have been able to treat these patients conservatively at home.” She added that no loss of smell or taste had been observed and oxygen levels remained normal. “Most of them are seeing very, very mild symptoms, and none of them, so far, have admitted patients to surgeries. And this doesn’t fit in the clinical picture,” she said. “We have seen a lot of Delta patients during the third wave. Angelique Coetzee told Reuters that the symptoms were mild and mostly consisted of fatigue, body aches and headaches. While it will take several more weeks to be sure, the chair of the South African Medical Association, Dr. WHO however, says that there is “no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants.” National Geographic reports that of the positive Covid tests in the Tshwane region of Gauteng Province, where it is supposed the variant began, 30% are now Omicron positive. While WHO says that it is not clear yet whether Omicron is more transmissible, the number of people testing positive to the variant could suggest it is. It may be more transmissible, but so far the symptoms seem mild This international collaboration at scale is what is keeping us ahead of this virus, and it’s pretty damn impressive. The same day, seven more of the sequence now known as Omicron were added and due to the high number of mutations and similarities to other variants of concern, they kept an eye on it.īy sharing the sequences before they even knew what was happening, scientists around the world could also simultaneously study them, and bodies such as WHO could swiftly take action and declare a ‘variant of concern’. The Guardian reports that on 23rd November scientists in southern Africa uploaded 99 Covid sequences with the majority being Delta, but three came back differently. This is because scientists have been routinely carrying out genomic surveillance to check for mutations. The New York Times reports that scientists have been quicker to assess this variant than any other, and that within just 36 hours researchers had samples from 100 positive patients to analyse and alerted the world. They've been running genomic sequencing for ages. Omicron (WHO states the samples have come from multiple countries, but reports suggest it can be traced back to southern Africa).Delta (earliest documented samples from India).
Gamma (earliest documented samples from Brazil).Beta (earliest documented samples from South Africa).Alpha (earliest documented samples from the UK).This swift and sharp response is enough to give everyone flashbacks to the discoveries of the now five variants of concern the world has had to endure: Israel shut its borders to international travellers and Australia has delayed the border reopening to December 15, allowing time for researchers to assess the new variant. Leaders across the world are closing their borders in what some have called a ‘knee-jerk’ response to new variant B.1.1.529 or Omicron, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated as a ‘variant of concern’ as of 26 November.īoris Johnson was the first to ban travel between the UK and southern Africa, with the EU and US following suit.
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