New Delhi: Will the ‘Omicron’ variant of Coronavirus be more dangerous than Delta? This question has raised many questions in the minds of scientists as well as common people. Based on data from South Africa and Britain, many experts are saying that Omicron will overtake Delta. At the same time, some experts say that it will be very difficult to decide this thing so soon. What will be the effect of this variant on health? How much will this affect the effectiveness of the vaccine? As such, many questions have not yet been answered.
Scientists refer to the situation in South Africa regarding the outbreak of Omicron. In mid-November, South Africa averaged less than 200 cases per day. After this figure became 16000 per day. In Guteng province, more than 90 percent of the cases are from Omicron. This new variant of Corona is spreading very fast in 8 provinces of South Africa.
Scientists say that it is not yet clear that Omicron will show the same effect in other parts of the world as in South Africa. Doctor Jacob Lemue says that there have already been signs regarding its behavior. In places like the UK where there is more genome sequencing, he said, “what we are seeing seems to be an indication of Omicron’s growth on the delta.” .’
Dr. Lemu said, ‘But when you look at the initial data together, there will be a picture that Omicron is already here and based on what we found in South Africa it is likely to become a dominant strain in the coming weeks and months’ And this can increase the number of cases.’ Africa Health Research Institute director Willem Hannekom said, “Preliminary data from South Africa suggests that Omicron has a much higher rate of re-infection than earlier variants.” Also, it seems that it is infecting the youth more and mostly those who have not received the vaccine. The special thing is that most of the cases admitted to the hospital are of mild illness.
