One study found that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was 4.2 times more transmissible in its early stages.
According to a study by a Japanese scientist who advises the Ministry of Health of this country, the omicron variant of Covid-19 is 4.2 times more contagious in the early stages than in the plains.
Hiroshi Nishiura, a professor of health and environmental sciences at Kyoto University who specializes in mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, analyzed genomic data available through November 26 in South Africans in the province. Gauteng.
“The omicron variant transmits more and escapes more naturally built and vaccine-mediated immunity,” Nishiura said in his findings, presented at the ministry’s advisory board meeting. Health Wednesday.
Globally, there is concern that the omicron could deal a bigger blow to the world than the plains, and the World Health Organization has warned that it could have “serious consequences”. But the surge in cases in South Africa following the emergence of this variant has yet to overwhelm hospitals, leading to some optimism that it may cause only mild illness. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE also said this week that a booster dose of their vaccine could increase protection against this strain of the virus.
Nishiura’s research has not been peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal. The new analysis was carried out using the same method he used in a July study published by the medical journal Eurosurveillance on the predicted dominance of the delta ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Hundreds of researchers globally are racing to understand the new variant, which is the most distinct of the five that have been of concern to WHO since the pandemic began.
Cases in South Africa have rapidly increased to nearly 20,000 a day since the country first reported detection of omicrons two weeks ago. The number of Covid-19 cases nationwide remained low in previous weeks, even though only 26% of the population was fully immunized, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker.
Pfizer will know the effectiveness of Shot before Omicron by the end of the year
“The vaccination rate is less than 30% and many people may have been infected at birth,” said Nishiura. “We need to pay close attention to future trends to see if the same thing happens in countries with high rates of mRNA vaccination.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
