Tag: Omicron Variant

According to WHO, the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to evolve. With such intense transmission worldwide, further variants, including recombinants, will emerge. This is expected."

Both BA.4 and BA.5 have also been added to the UK agency's monitoring list. One case each of BA.4 has already been detected in Scotland and England, up to March 30, according to the UKHSA.

Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of 10% as compared to BA.2. However, this finding requires further confirmation, it said.

Bill Gates On OMICRON & COVID Vaccines

The discouraging tendency among the elderly population in the State has made Odisha cut a poor figure on the national map

Meanwhile, health expert Dr Srikanth Dhar said, "Even though the Covid cases across the country is witnessing a downtrend, around 60% of the total cases have been detected with Omicron. BA.2 is higher in comparison to BA.1. It can be stated that almost all Covid cases are of Omicron."

Unless virus circulation is reduced, the world's vast gene pool will become the lab for variant mutation. Africa continent is vulnerable. Fully vaccinated are also susceptible, says WHO  

Dr. Abdi Mahamud, the WHO's Covid incident manager, said it's unclear whether BA.2 can reinfect people who previously had BA.1, the report said.

Around 60% of COVID infections reported in Odisha these days are related to the new Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the Director of Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar, Ajay Parida said.

At a time when the entire country has been grappling with the highly transmissible Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-1, the health department in Odisha on Thursday informed the State currently has no data on patients infected by the new strain.

The virus uses the spike protein to latch on to and enter the cells it infects. The Omicron spike protein has 37 mutations that distinguish it from the first SARS-CoV-2 isolates in 2020.

Although Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants showed a slight increase in ethanol resistance in response to increased environmental stability, all VOCs on the skin surface were completely inactivated by 15 second exposure to 35 per cent ethanol.

That finding may explain in part the rise in symptomatic infections caused by the Omicron variant in people who have previously been vaccinated, they said.

The INSACOG, in its bulletin of January 3 which was also released on Sunday, also said Omicron is now in community transmission in India and has become dominant in Delhi and Mumbai where new cases have been rising exponentially.

Another compelling myth doing the rounds in the European region alleges that Omicron is just like a common cold. This was also shot down by the fact sheet, which instead described the variant as being "much more dangerous".