Early indicators of the severity of Covid-19 caused by the Ômicron variant are “a little encouraging,” but it’s too early to take a clear position on whether it can cause serious illness, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert. from the United States to CNN on Sunday (5).
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States said that data so far suggest that the variant is not causing more severe cases of Covid-19.
“But we really have to be careful before making any determination that it’s less serious or doesn’t actually cause any serious illness comparable to Delta. But so far, the signs are a little encouraging regarding gravity.
The specialist emphasizes that it is necessary to maintain the virus containment measures “until we carry out more experiments”.
Fauci said the United States remains in constant communication with South African experts and that the Ômicron variant is becoming dominant in South Africa, especially as cases were still few when the variant was identified.
He said that exactly what could happen in the United States and other countries, where the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominates, is not known.
“The question for us here in the United States, where it (Ômicron) has been confirmed in at least 15 states and in about 40 countries, is: what will happen when it competes with a very dominant variant like Delta?
Fauci said booster doses of coronavirus vaccines “will be critical in determining whether or not we will be able to handle” micron efficiently.
Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said all adults should be boosted with a coronavirus vaccine.
(Translated text. Read the original here.)
Reference: CNN Brasil
