São Paulo already registers community transmission of omicron, says mayor

The City of São Paulo already treats the transmission of the omicron variant of the new coronavirus as a community in the capital.

On Wednesday (15), the Municipal Health Department confirmed seven more infected with the new strain. According to the folder, these cases are of people who had contact with a 67-year-old elderly man who was infected without a history of traveling abroad.

“[É] community transmission in a situation of confirmation of seven people who had no situation of arriving from abroad. Therefore, technically today, it is possible to say that the city government treats the case as community transmission,” said Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), during an event in the late afternoon of Wednesday for the delivery of affordable housing in the M’Boi Mirim region.

According to Nunes, 300 people are being monitored. They would have participated in a party where the elderly person was.

“Everyone [sete confirmados] they are asymptomatic, which makes us understand, and it is not yet concluded, that it is a major transmissibility variant, however, that it does not have health effects as we have seen in previous variants”, said the mayor.

According to him, the secretariat has a list of 300 people and all of them were contacted.

This Thursday (16), Nunes confirmed the community broadcast again and said that on Friday (17) the secretariat should release a technical report on omicron in the city.

In a statement on Wednesday, the secretariat said there were 90 people under investigation. Asked about the difference in numbers, the folder did not respond until the publication of this text.

In all, ten people had confirmation of the omicron variant in the city of São Paulo. A missionary couple was released from isolation last week.

On Wednesday, the State Department of Health said in a note that the community transmission of the new variant in the state was not confirmed. “The new confirmations are restricted to people who have had contact with already diagnosed patients, a situation technically called ‘localized cluster'”, he stated.

With the seven new cases in the capital, the state now has 13 confirmed cases of omicron so far.

Both the city hall and the state government have reserved beds in three hospitals for cases of admissions of patients with the new variant: two in the east side of São Paulo and one in Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo, because of the international airport.

Last Sunday (12), the Ministry of Health confirmed six cases of the new variant in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (2), Goiás (2) and the Federal District (2). There has been no update since then on the number of cases recorded by the federal government.

Because of omicron, airlines are already requiring travelers to present proof of vaccination against Covid at the time they board to Brazil.

​The charge came into effect after a decision by Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court). Last Saturday (11), he made the presentation of an immunization certificate mandatory for entry into Brazil.

Only people who prove that they cannot take the vaccine for medical reasons, who are returning from countries without available doses of the immunizing agent or for exceptional humanitarian reasons, are exempt from showing the certificate.

SCRATCHS

The existence of the new strain was reported to the WHO (World Health Organization) on the 24th, after the emergence of cases in South Africa. Since then, there has been confirmation of infections caused by omicron in the five continents.

“Given the mutations that could confer the ability to escape an immune response, and give it an advantage in terms of transmissibility, the probability that the omicron will propagate around the world is high,” the organization said on the 29th.

On the same day, health ministers from G7 countries warned that the variant requires urgent action. “The international community faces the threat of a new highly transmissible variant of Covid-19, which requires urgent action,” the ministers said in a joint statement.