The WHO (World Health Organization) said on Wednesday (1) that the number of Covid cases is expected to grow because of omicron, a new variant initially discovered in South Africa.
“[O aumento dos casos] it doesn’t surprise us,” said Tedros Adhanom, WHO director, criticizing the fact that many countries still have low vaccination coverage.
According to Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Covid-19 technical leader, it is expected that in a few days new information will become available on the transmissibility of omicrons. Some preliminary data already indicate that the new variant has greater capacity to spread, but it is not yet known whether it will surpass delta, for example.
At the conference, WHO also stated that there are already talks between Member States about an agreement that provides instruments and opportunities for all countries to have the same tools to overcome health crises, such as pandemics.
Named on Friday (26) by the WHO, the omicron was initially sequenced in South Africa, but this does not indicate that the variant necessarily appeared in the country. Currently, it has been identified in several points around the world — in Brazil, three diagnoses of Covid-19 caused by it have already been confirmed.
The omicron raised the alert of the international community because of its large number of mutations. Of most concern are the 30 present in protein S, which are used by the virus to enter human cells. It is from these proteins that current vaccines are produced, and that is why there are suspicions that they could be less efficient against this strain.
Some studies are already being carried out to identify whether vaccine escape really exists. BioNTech, a partner at Pfizer, said on Friday (26) that it expects to have the first research results in two weeks at the latest that will determine whether the variant can escape the protection of the immunizing agent.
The main executive of Moderna, a laboratory that produces another vaccine against the disease, has already stated that immunizing agents should be less effective against the new variant when compared to the delta.
Even so, Kerkhove stressed at the conference that the vaccines currently available are extremely important in stopping transmission and deaths caused by Covid-19.
In addition, it is not yet known precisely how transmissible it is, but some evidence already indicates that it can be more contagious.
“This variant was detected at faster rates than previous peaks of infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage — indicating that it may cause more damage than the original version of the coronavirus,” said a report by the technical group. linked to WHO which was responsible for categorizing omicron as a variant of concern.
For now, measures such as protective masks must be tightened up to block transmission of the variant, experts say. In São Paulo, there were already plans to make the use of masks more flexible for December 11, but the state government has already asked for a new assessment on the need to use the equipment in open environments.
Vaccination, even without efficacy responses against omicrons, is still essential. WHO advised countries to accelerate immunization of priority groups and that have plans to maintain essential health services in situations of growing numbers of Covid cases. “Due to the characteristics, there may be future Covid-19 peaks, which could have severe consequences,” stated the Organization on Monday (29).
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