Limited over the world are pushing again towards the latest strain of Covid-19, now formally called by its Greek alphabet name ‘Omicron’, or B.1.1.529 if you wish to be scientific.
Potentially, the model new variant is extra a transmissible coronavirus and was first recognised by South African well being authorities. Now, a selection of countries are already banning travellers from several southern African nations together with South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Meanwhile, Thailand is banning entry of travellers from 8 African countries. The Public Health Minister today announced that no Omicron instances had yet been detected in Thailand.
The South African Health Minister, Joe Phaahla,, says that it initially seemed like some cluster outbreaks.
“But from yesterday, the indication came from our scientists from the Network of Genomic Surveillance that they had been observing a model new variant.”
And a professor of Public Health and Microbiology at the University of Cambridge has confirmed that, while the overall number of Covid infections has been relatively low in South Africa, “there has been a fast improve up to now seven days”.
“While the importance of the mutations and their mixture is unknown, some of these present in the latest variant have been associated in others with immune evasion.”
The WHO have praised South African well being officers for his or her “quick reaction to a Covid-19 outbreak”. The first detections have been in South ’Africa’s Gauteng province, leading to the discovery of the new variant. But at this stage scientists are unable to discover out where the brand new pressure emerged exactly.
The World Health Organization has already put the brand new variant at the high of its record as a “variant of concern”.
Omicron has already been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Belgium.
Worryingly for South African scientists, the new variant appears to be spreading quickly around South Africa. They say they are concerned its “unusually high number of mutations could make it extra transmissible and lead to immune evasion”.
Another health official in South Africa yesterday said that Omicron was “spreading very fast, and we count on to see pressure within the health system within the next few days and weeks”.
Following Friday’s official announcements, elements of the world have sprung into motion, with flights banned out of southern African locations.
The EU Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says there’s a “high to very high” risk the new variant will unfold in Europe.
South African officials announced on Thursday that there was one confirmed case from a traveller from South Africa to Hong Kong. Hong Kong health authorities followed up on Friday by identifying a second case of Omicron amongst returning passengers who had been on the same floor of a quarantine hotel.
The Belgian authorities has additionally confirmed that 1 particular person who had recently arrived (from an unspecified location), and was unvaccinated, had examined positive for the model new variant.
Speaking to CNN, Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School in the UK, says Omicron is “very worrying.”