While more than three dozen countries worldwide have reported omicron infections, the numbers so far are small outside of South Africa. That means continuing to push for higher vaccination rates, abiding by social-distancing guidelines, and wearing masks, among other measures, said WHO Regional Emergency Director Dr. “The positive news in all of this is that none of the information we have currently about omicron suggests we need to change the directions of our response,” Kasai said. Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said the measures used against the delta variant - which itself caused surges the world over - should remain at the core of the response. While warning that cases could well rise quickly because of omicron, Dr. That dovetails with what officials from WHO in Asia said Friday. “I have a lot of hope from the data that we see that those vaccinated should be able to have a lot of protection,” he said. But Moyo expressed hope that vaccines would continue to work against the variant. The picture could change because most of those infected thus far have been younger people, who generally do not get as sick as older patients. South Africa’s hospitals are so far coping with the surge, even those in Gauteng province, which accounts for more than 70% of all new infections, Phaahla said. The findings, posted online Thursday, are preliminary and haven’t yet undergone scientific review. While the study did not examine the protection offered by vaccination, von Gottberg said: “We believe that vaccines will still, however, protect against severe disease.”
“Previous infection used to protect against delta, and now with omicron it doesn’t seem to be the case,” one of the researchers, Anne von Gottberg of the University of Witwatersrand, said at a World Health Organization briefing on Thursday.
Phaahla noted that only a small number of people who have been vaccinated have gotten sick, mostly with mild cases, while the vast majority of those who have been hospitalized were not vaccinated.īut in a worrisome development, South African scientists reported that omicron appears more likely than earlier variants to cause reinfections among people who have already had a bout with COVID-19.
It’s not clear if the variant causes more serious illness or can evade the protection of vaccines. Omicron has more than 50 mutations, and scientists have called it a big jump in the evolution of the virus. Little is known about the new variant, but the spike in South Africa suggests it might be more contagious, said Moyo, the scientist who may have been the first to identify the new variant, though researchers in neighboring South Africa were close on his heels. Even with the rapid increase, infections are still below the 25,000 new daily cases that South Africa reported in the previous surge, in June and July.