South African Institute of Communicable Diseases: Omicron variant may displace Delta

The Omicron variant found in South Africa may be the most likely candidate to displace the highly contagious Delta, the director of the South Africa Institute of Communicable Diseases said in an interview with Reuters.

The discovery of Omicron has caused a global alarm, with many countries restricting travel from South Africa, fearing that the variant could spread quickly, even among those vaccinated, with the World Health Organization saying there was a high risk of an increase in infections. .

“If we thought Delta would prevail? That has always been the question, at least in terms of transmissibility… Maybe this particular variant is the one that will displace Delta,” said Adrien Pouren, NICD chief executive.

If Omicron proves more contagious than Delta, it could lead to a sharp rise in infections, which would intensify the pressure on hospitals.

Pouren said scientists will know within four weeks whether Omicron bypasses vaccine-induced immunity or disease and whether it causes worse clinical symptoms compared to other variants.

Unpublished reports from doctors taking care of Covid-19 patients in South Africa say Omicron appears to cause mild symptoms such as dry cough, fever and night sweats, but experts warn that no conclusions should be drawn yet.

Pouren said it was too early to say whether Omicron would relocate the Delta to South Africa, as scientists have so far analyzed only 87 genomes. But the fact that cases are starting to rise rapidly, especially in the most populous province of Gauteng, is a sign that this may already be the case.

The Delta caused a third wave of infections in South Africa and in early July the cases exceeded 26,000 daily. Omicron is expected to cause a fourth wave and the cases are expected to reach 10,000 by the end of the week, from about 2,270 yesterday.

Anne von Gottberg, a clinical microbiologist at the NICD, said infections appeared to be on the rise across the country, but did not link the phenomenon to Omicron yet.

“It seems that some of these imports may have started before the emergence of Omicron. We also see an increase in flu cases last month, so we have to be really careful with other respiratory infections,” he said. “We are monitoring the data very carefully, but at the moment I am not sure we can link it to Omicron,” he said.

Source: AMPE