South Africa fuels Omicron hope by dodging hospitalisation spike

Initial data from South Africa, the epicenter of the outbreak of the omicron variant, don’t show a resulting surge of hospitalisations. The seven-day moving average of daily new cases in the country rose to 10,055 last week, from less than 300 three weeks earlier. Hospitalisations also picked up but remain relatively low, with admissions standing at 3,268 on Sunday. Whether there will be a deluge of new patients is the biggest question. Severe symptoms in patients who contracted earlier variants typically developed between one and three weeks after they were diagnosed, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. And while anecdotal evidence and initial data analysis from one hospital complex suggests that Omicron may cause milder illness, especially among those who’ve been vaccinated or previously infected, it will become clearer this week or next if that’s indeed the case. “Our admissions are doubling every day,” said Fareed Abdullah, director at the South African Medical Research Council and an infectious disease doctor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, the capital.

Still, while it remains too early to tell, the current wave of infections appears to be different from earlier ones, Abdullah said. The first Omicron mutations were detected in South Africa and neighbouring Botswana last month, with its discovery formally announced on November 25. The variant is now the overwhelmingly dominant one in South Africa. The authorities say they are ready for a patient influx. Citing hospitalisation figures from South Africa, Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said: “Thus far, it doesn’t look like there’s a great degree of severity to it.” But he cautioned it’s too early to be certain. Even as the Omicron mutation has spread to at least 17 US states, Fauci said the Biden administration is reevaluating the travel ban on southern African countries as more information becomes available. Moderna President Stephen Hoge said there’s a “real risk” that existing vaccines will be less effective against omicron.

On Alert A Dire Warning Future pandemics could be even more lethal than Covid-19 so the lessons learned from the outbreak must not be squandered, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine said. “The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both,” Sarah Gilbert said in the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the BBC reported.

• Pakistan bans travel from 15 countries amid Omicron threat
• Omicron has higher risk of reinfection than Delta and Beta, says Singapore’s health ministry
• Unvaccinated Italians barred from indoor restaurants, theatres and museums
• The Omicron variant is found in 17 US states. Majority of cases show mild symptoms

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