(Geneva) The risk posed by the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus Omicron in the world remains “very high”, warned the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday.
“The overall risk associated with the new omicron worrying variant remains very high,” warns the WHO in its weekly epidemiological bulletin.
“Reliable evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling rate of two to three days,” adds the WHO, noting that a “rapid increase in the incidence of cases is observed in a number of countries ”.
“The rapid growth is probably linked to a combination between the loss of immunity and the intrinsic increase in the transmissibility of the Omicron variant”, the same source said.
However, the WHO has highlighted the 29% decrease in the incidence of cases in South Africa, the country which was the first to report this variant to the WHO on November 24.
The WHO has previously indicated that data from Britain, South Africa and Denmark – which currently have the highest infection rates – suggested a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared to the Delta variant.
However, more data is needed to understand the seriousness represented by Omicron in terms of clinical markers, including oxygen use, mechanical ventilation and deaths. And also on how this severity could be impacted by a previous infection with COVID-19 or a vaccination.
According to the WHO, in the week ending Sunday, the overall number of new cases rose 11% from the previous week, while the number of deaths fell by 4%.
“This corresponds to just under 5 million new cases and over 44,000 new deaths,” the WHO added.
The largest number of cases have been recorded in the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy.