Admittedly, knowledge concerning the dangerousness of Omicron, the new variant of Sars-COV-2, is incomplete; but they did not prevent the World Health Organization (WHO) from alerting, Monday, November 29, on the “Very high risk” that it presents at the global level.
“Given the mutations that could confer escape potential to the immune response [autrement dit, une résistance d’Omicron aux anticorps produits par un vaccin ou une infection], just as possibly giving an advantage in terms of transmissibility, the likelihood of Omicron spreading globally is high ”, writes the organization in a technical document. The list of countries where it is detected continues to grow, after the first cases were spotted in southern Africa in November, and it has already led many countries to close their borders.
“Depending on these characteristics, there could be future peaks of Covid-19, which could have severe consequences depending on different factors and in particular where these peaks would occur”, added the WHO, which had as of Friday classified the variant as “Worrying”.
“No deaths to date”
The WHO emphasizes, however, that many unknowns remain on this variant: what is its contagiousness, is it inherent in the mutations observed or does it arise from the fact that this variant is better able to escape the immune response? What is the level of protection conferred by existing Covid-19 vaccines? Does Omicron cause more severe symptoms?
“To date, no death associated with the Omicron variant has been reported”, underlines the organization, which also gives advice to the authorities to try to stop the diffusion of the new variant.