Buzz
After emerging over a month ago and being identified as a concerning variant, WHO now announces they have initial data confirming that the Omicron variant indeed spreads faster than Delta and weakens the effectiveness of existing vaccines. Fortunately, it causes fewer severe symptoms than the Delta variant.In this report, WHO suggests that Omicron surpassing Delta and becoming the dominant infectious strain globally is only a matter of time. Currently, reported infections are mostly asymptomatic or mild, with very few new deaths recorded, so there is still insufficient data to confirm whether it is more lethal than Delta or not.
The WHO also asserts that even if future studies reveal that Omicron is less virulent than Delta, its rampant spread still poses a significant threat comparable to the Delta variant, given its confirmed faster transmission rate compared to all previously known variants. There have also been reported deaths attributed to the Omicron variant in the UK, where the number of infections yesterday exceeded previous records with nearly 100 thousand cases recorded in just one day.
