Existing COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be effective in preventing serious illness and hospitalization from the new Omicron variant of the new coronavirus, South Africa’s leading epidemiologist Salim Abdul Karim said today.
It is too early for scientists to say whether Omicron is leading to more serious clinical symptoms than previous variants of the virus, said Professor Karim, who was a senior adviser to the South African government in its initial response to the pandemic.
However, he added, it does appear to be more contagious and appears to be more likely to infect people who have developed immunity to the virus either through vaccination or through infection.
“Based on what we know and how other variants of concern have responded to vaccine immunity, we can expect to continue to see high efficacy against hospitalization and serious illness and that vaccine protection is likely to remain strong,” he said. Abdul Karim in a press conference he gave.
Prevention of severe disease is primarily a function of T-cell immunity, which differs from antibody immunity that often precludes infection. “T,” he noted.
There is a possibility of more re-infections and new infections, but vaccinated people are less likely to get serious from COVID-19, he said.
Public health expert Wassila Jasat added in the same press conference that Gauteng County, the urban area in the central part of the country where cases have risen since the new coronavirus variant was identified, has not yet seen an increase in COVID-related deaths. 19.
Omicron was described first in Botswana and then in South Africa, Abdul Karim also said, adding that closing the border was of almost no benefit as 11 countries had reported cases since Sunday.
The discovery of the new strain in southern Africa has provoked strong reactions worldwide, with countries restricting travel from the South African region and imposing other restrictions for fear that it could spread rapidly even to vaccinated populations.
In Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that this variant poses a very high risk of an increase in infections worldwide, although further research is needed to assess whether it has the potential to circumvent the protection offered by immunity from vaccines and from a previous virus infection.
Yesterday, Sunday, a South African doctor, who was one of the first to suspect the presence of the new coronavirus strain, said that the Omicron variant so far seems to be causing mild symptoms.
However, Abdul Karim, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and Columbia University in the United States, said it was too early to draw definitive conclusions, as doctors can only comment based on the patients they care for.
“As far as the clinical picture is concerned, there are not enough data yet,” he stressed.
The country’s top epidemiologist also noted that new cases in South Africa will reach more than 10,000 a day by the end of the week. “I expect that we will exceed 10,000 cases a day by the end of the week, we will see the pressure in the hospitals in the next two to three weeks,” he noted.
The South African government is doing everything it can to prepare the facilities of the health system to deal with the new Omicron variant, he said in the same press conference given online by the Minister of Health of South Africa.
“There is no reason to panic. We have gone through it again,” said Joe Faala, reiterating that the country has already faced the emergence of beta and delta variants.
“In the coming days or weeks, our scientists will have the answers,” he continued.
Joe Falal also added that South African officials were consulting with countries that had imposed travel restrictions on southern African countries, trying to persuade them to reverse their decisions, while Abdul Karim noted that the closure of the border did not prevent cross-border of Omicron.
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