WHO: Too early to tell if Omicron more infectiousDecember 13, 2021 - 15:40 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has now been reported in 57 countries and continues to spread rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says, according to The Guardian. But the latest epidemiological report from WHO says given the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the U.S., it is still too early to draw any conclusions about the global impact of Omicron. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has predicted that the Omicron variant could become the dominant variant in Europe within months. For now, though, the Delta variant continues to dominate cases, and more data is needed to determine Omicron’s infectiousness and severity, WHO says. “While there seems to be evidence that the Omicron variant may have a growth advantage over other circulating variants, it is unknown whether this will translate into increased transmissibility,” the WHO report said. Of 899,935 Covid-19 test samples sequenced and uploaded to the global Covid database in the last 60 days, 897,886 (99.8%) were confirmed to be Delta, while 713 (0.1%) were Omicron. The WHO report said South Africa reported 62,021 cases of the variant between 29 November and 5 December – an 111% rise from the previous week. The country also had an 82% increase in hospital admissions due to Covid-19 during the week to 4 December – 912 admissions compared with 502 the week prior. But it is not yet known how many of these cases were due to Omicron. Omicron seems to be spreading rapidly in South Africa despite high rates of past infection with Covid. Estimates suggest between 60% and 80% of the population have previously been infected. Vaccination rates are low, at about 35%. Data is still too limited to know with certainty whether Omicron changes the severity of the illness. As of 6 December, all 212 confirmed Omicron cases across 18 European Union countries were classed as asymptomatic or mild. But WHO said “even if the severity is equal or potentially even lower than for Delta variant, it is expected that hospitalisations will increase if more people become infected”. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |