The director of South Africa’s communicable disease institute has said that the Omicron variant is likely to be more virulent than the Delta strain. The Omicron variant was classified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organzation (WHO) on November 26th and it was first reported from South Africa on November 24th. It is being anticipatd that the new strain may infect even vaccinated populations and cause surges in infections around he world.
Many countries have tightened travel restrictions, especially from South Africa. The country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) acting executive director Adrian Puren told Reuters that "We thought what will outcompete Delta? That has always been the question, in terms of transmissibility at least, ... perhaps this particular variant is the variant”.
Puren, a virology expert, has said that scientists will know within four weeks the extent of the Omicron variant’s ability to evade immunity granted by vaccinations and previous infection. He also said it was too early to say whether the new variant was displacing the Delta variant in South Africa.
Clinical microbiologist Anne von Gottberg from the same institute said that it cannot be conclusively said that the rising trend of new infections in the country is due to the new strain.
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