London, Thanasis Gavos
The first hospitalizations of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom were confirmed by the Minister of Education Nadim Zahaoui, while the competent health services have now detected 1,898 cases in the country, but the real number is estimated to be “ten times”.
Speaking to Sky News, the British minister said that tests performed over the past two weeks on Covid patients showed that they were sick with this variant, pointing out that there is a delay between infection and hospitalization.
He made a special reference to London, where the data show that one in three cases of coronavirus are already due to the Omicron variant.
Zahaoui said the data so far indicated that Omicron was “less severe” in symptoms than previous variants of the coronavirus, but warned that with a high number of infections “tens of thousands” of patients would end up in hospital. “With simple math, if we reach 1 million infections by the end of December, 1% is 10,000 serious infections that could be found in the hospital,” he said.
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical officer of the United Kingdom Health Insurance Agency (UKHSA), said: “We are concerned and we are right to be concerned” pending the final conclusions on Omicron. He warned that “even with half the severity of Delta infections, then (with Omicron) we face a very large number of hospitalizations and potential deaths.”
UCL Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the SAGE Scientific Committee, also predicted a “very, very large wave of infections”, estimating that the Omicron variant is “maybe two to three times more contagious” and at the same time “its two doses vaccine have relatively little effect on preventing this transmission. “
Meanwhile, also speaking to Sky News, Professor Barry Schubb, a scientific adviser to the South African government, said that cases there double every day and a half, but hospitalizations have not increased accordingly. He also said that many double-vaccinated people are affected, but most of them have mild symptoms.
He also pointed out that the country has recorded higher rates of cases of the Omicron variant at a young age, to be precise even in two-year-old children. “We have seen some quite serious incidents,” he added.
However, the British Minister of Education Nadim Zahawi said that the government has no plans “for the time being” to vaccinate children under 12 years of age.
Concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant in the UK peaked over the weekend following the release of forecasting models from the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine warning of 24,700 to 74,000 deaths (and 175,000 to 492,000) due to United Kingdom by the end of April.
The school’s researchers stressed that in order to prevent the most pessimistic scenario, ie that of many deaths due to a large degree of escape of Omicron from the defense of vaccines and boosting doses, much stricter “last resort” restrictive measures would be required.
Many reports already say that the government has begun to consider tightening the measures in the context of a “plan C”.
In the meantime, citizens over the age of 30 in the UK can make an appointment for the booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine from today, with Boris Johnson expected to make relevant announcements.
The UK Government is seeking to give further impetus to the third-dose program, in particular following UKHSA analysis showing that while both doses do not provide significant protection against Omicron after 100 days, booster protection increases to 75%.
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