A total of 57 countries have already detected cases of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, although many are asymptomatic or mild, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights in a report where Warning of a high possibility of infection again which appears to contain the new strain.
The organization’s weekly epidemiological report stresses this 212 confirmed cases in 18 countries in the European Union (EU) has been in people with mild or even no symptoms.
However, the World Health Organization warns that although the omicron variant may cause less serious cases than delta (currently prevalent) It can increase hospital admissions and deaths if, it is feared, it is more contagious And it causes more inflammation in general.
In the past 60 days, among the 900,000 cases of COVID-19 analyzed by the global laboratory network GISAID More than 99% are still caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus, And only 713 (0.1%) belong to omicron.
However, this number Much higher than what the World Health Organization indicated a week ago (When GISAID identified 14 states of omicrons) The variant was already outnumbering another previously detected number, such as alpha or gamma.
WHO cites projections from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which expects Omicron to become the dominant variant in the EU (more than 50% of cases) between January and March 2022, depending on the level of transmissibility. we take.
WHO highlights the significant increase in cases in southern African countries, the region where Omicron was first detected: not just South Africa, where cases doubled in a week (111% more), but Eswatini (1,990%), Zimbabwe (1,361%), Mozambique (1,207%), Namibia (681%), and Lesotho (219%).
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