Omicron Covid Variant: Omicron has stoked fears globally about an increase in Covid infections.
Johannesburg:
According to the latest data from South Africa, the Omicron variant seems to be able to gain some immunity but the vaccine must still protect against severe disease, according to the latest data from South Africa, where it is rapidly overtaking Delta to become the dominant variant.
Omicron, the company that has sparked global concern about a rise in infections, was first detected in southern Africa last week and has prompted governments across continents to impose restrictions. travel restrictions and take other measures to try to prevent it.
According to the latest official report on Wednesday, the new variant has been detected in five of South Africa’s nine provinces and is likely present across the country.
The number of daily reported cases doubled to 8,561. It is not known how many of these were Omicrons because not all of the samples tested required genome sequencing, but an official presentation said Omicron had “rapidly became the dominant variant.” .
According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NICD), Omicron accounted for 74% of the 249 virus genomes sequenced in South Africa in November, the agency is collecting data as part of a network broader national genomic surveillance.
South Africa only conducts genome sequencing on a small percentage of the total samples collected each week. The NICD does not give total confirmed cases of Omicron infection.
The latest report from the surveillance network says: “Mutation profiles (The) and epidemiological images suggest that Omicrons may use some of our immune defenses (to infect infection) but protection against serious illness and death from vaccines is less likely to be affected. .
The earliest sample for which the variant was detected was collected on 8 November in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province, where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located.
Since then, it has been discovered in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Western Cape.
Organizers had previously halted the youth music festival after 36 people tested positive for COVID-19 at the venue.
The Ballito Rage music festival kicked off on Tuesday in the town of Ballito, north of Durban on South Africa’s east coast. Of the 940 people tested for COVID in the first eight hours of the event, 32 guests and four staff members tested positive.
It is not known whether 36 people were infected with Omicron or another variant.
The Delta variant spurred South Africa’s third wave of infections, which peaked at more than 26,000 cases a day in early July.
Since the pandemic began, the country has reported nearly 3 million infections and more than 89,000 deaths, the most on the African continent.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
