Overall risk related to Omicron 'remains very high', warns WHO as world fights new COVID-19 variant

New Delhi: As the world fights the new COVID-19 variant, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the overall risk related to Omicron 'remains very high'.

In a weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 on Tuesday (December 28, 2021), the global health body stated that consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a 'growth advantage over the Delta variant' with a doubling time of 2-3 days.

"Rapid increases in the incidence of cases is seen in a number of countries, including those where the variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant, such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America," the WHO said.

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"The rapid growth rate is likely to be a combination of both immune evasion and intrinsic increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant," it added.

Reduced risk of hospitalization

The WHO stated that early data from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Denmark suggests there is a reduced risk of hospitalization for the Omicron compared to the Delta variant. It, however, said that further data are needed to understand the clinical markers of severity including the use of oxygen, mechanical ventilation and death, and how severity may be impacted by vaccination and/or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

"It is also expected that corticosteroids and interleukin 6 receptor blockers will remain effective in the management of patients with severe disease, however, preliminary data suggest that monoclonal antibodies may be less able to neutralize the Omicron variant," it said.

New COVID-19 cases increase globally

During the week December 20-26, following a gradual increase since October, the global number of new coronavirus cases have increased by 11% as compared to the previous week. The number of new deaths, however, remained similar to the number reported during the previous week. 

The Region of the Americas have reported the largest increase in new cases in the last week (39%), followed by the African Region, which reported an increase of 7%. The South-East Asia Region continued to report a decrease in new cases as compared to the previous week (12%) while in the European, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific Regions, the number of new cases was similar to those reported during the previous week. 

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The African Region reported the highest increase in the number of new deaths (72%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (9%) and the Region of the Americas (7%).

According to the WHO, as of December 26, over 278 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 5.4 million deaths have been reported globally.

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