As the world battles COVID-19’s new variant, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the general danger associated with Omicron remains very high.
In its weekly update regarding COVID-19 on Tuesday (December 28, 2021), the world health organization said that the consistent evidence suggests there is evidence that shows the Omicron variant has a “growth advantages over Delta variant’ and the possibility of doubling in 2-3 days.
“Rapid increase in the frequency of cases can be observed in many nations, including the ones in which the variant is now the predominant variant of SARS-CoV-2, like countries like the United Kingdom and the United States of America,” the WHO declared.
“The rapid rate of growth is most likely to be the result of immune evasion as well as inherent increased transmissibility of Omicron version,” it added.
READ MORE: Europe tightens COVID-19 restrictions to control the Omicron wave.
Lower chance of hospitalization
The WHO said that preliminary data collected from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Denmark suggest a lower chance of hospitalization for Omicron than those with the Delta variant.
However, it said that more data are required to determine the clinical indicators of severity, such as medical ventilation, oxygen, and death, and how severity can be affected through vaccination or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“It is also predicted that corticosteroids, as well as interleukin six receptor blockers, will be efficient in managing patients suffering from severe illness. However, initial evidence suggests that monoclonal antibodies are less likely to be effective in neutralizing Omicron version,” it said.
Omicron cases are increasing globally.
In the week of December 20-26, Following a slow increase in October, the number of coronavirus cases has increased by 11% compared to the week prior.
However, the number of deaths was similar to the number of deaths reported the week before.
The Americas region has recorded the highest rise in new cases over the past week (39 percent) and was then The African Region, which reported an increase of 7 percent.
Conversely, the South-East Asia Region continued to record a decrease in cases of new cases when compared with the previous week.
For the European, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific Regions, new cases were the same as those previously reported.
Eric is a professional news editor, writer, and blogger for the last 10 years. He is working with NewsGater as an off-beat news editor cum writer.