GENEVA: The Omicron coronavirus variant has been reported in 89 countries and the number of cases is doubling in one-and-a-half to three days in areas with community transmission, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday (Dec 18).
Omicron is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity, but it is unclear if this is due to the virus' ability to evade immunity, its inherent increased transmissibility or a combination of both, the WHO said in an update.
The agency designated Omicron a variant of concern on Nov 26, soon after it was first detected, and much is still not known about it, including the severity of the illness it causes.
The risk of reinfection with the Omicron coronavirus variant is more than five times higher and it has shown no sign of being milder than Delta, a study showed, as cases soar across Europe and threaten year-end festivities.
The results of the study by Imperial College London were based on UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service data on people who tested positive for COVID-19 in a PCR test in England between Nov 29 and Dec 11.
"We find no evidence (for both risk of hospitalisation attendance and symptom status) of Omicron having different severity from Delta," the study said, although it added that data on hospitalisations remains very limited.
"Controlling for vaccine status, age, sex, ethnicity, asymptomatic status, region and specimen date, Omicron was associated with a 5.4-fold higher risk of reinfection compared with Delta," the study, which was dated Dec. 16, added.
The protection afforded by past infection against reinfection with Omicron may be as low as 19 per cent, Imperial College (ICL) said in a statement, noting that the study had not yet been peer reviewed.
The researchers found a significantly increased risk of developing a symptomatic Omicron case compared to Delta for those who were two or more weeks past their second vaccine dose, and two or more weeks past their booster dose.
The study involved AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
Depending on the estimates used for vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant, this translates into vaccine effectiveness of between 0 per cent and 20 per cent after two doses, and between 55 per cent and 80 per cent after a booster dose.
"This study provides further evidence of the very substantial extent to which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection or vaccination," study lead Professor Neil Ferguson said in ICL's statement.
"This level of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health."
CHICAGO (Reuters) - As the Omicron variant gains momentum in Europe and the United States, scientists are rewriting their expectations for the COVID-19 pandemic next year.
Just weeks ago, disease experts were predicting that countries would begin to emerge from the pandemic in 2022 after enduring a series of surges driven by the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants. First among them would be populations with a significant amount of exposure to the coronavirus, through a combination of infections and vaccination.
In those places, COVID was expected to ease into an endemic disease, hopefully with less-severe periodic or seasonal outbreaks. Vaccines, available for much of 2021 only in wealthy nations, could reach the majority of the global population by the end of the year ahead.
But the rapid spread of the highly-mutated Omicron variant, identified in late November, and its apparent ability to reinfect people at a higher rate than its predecessors, is undermining that hope.
Already, countries are reverting to measures used earlier in the pandemic: restricting travel, reimposing mask requirements, advising against large gatherings for the winter holidays. While it is not quite back to square one, much more of the world will need to be vaccinated or exposed to COVID to get past the worst of the pandemic, disease experts told Reuters.
"People are sick of the pandemic and God knows I am, but unless we can get some urgency to compel our leaders to take action, I really see 2022 being a lot of more of the same that we saw in 2021," said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
Even after COVID becomes a more endemic disease, new variants will spawn outbreaks and seasonal surges for years to come.
"There's always going to be a baseline number of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "A lot of people haven't come to terms with that."
The hope is that the virus diminishes to the point where it is no longer disruptive. But living with COVID-19 does not mean the virus is no longer a threat.
Instead, people will need to be ready to adjust when the next variant comes along, said Dr. Tom Frieden, chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health initiative, and former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "You need to recognize that at certain times, it's going to be safer to do things than at other times."
PANDEMIC PHASE ENDING IN 2022?
Some scientists are not entirely ready to abandon hope that some parts of the world will emerge from the pandemic next year. More than 270 million people have been infected with COVID, according to the World Health Organization, while an estimated 57% of the global population has received at least one vaccine dose, representing potential protection that did not exist two years ago.
"Even if that immunity is not as good against Omicron, it doesn't mean that it's worthless. And that immunity is more effective against serious illness than it is against getting infected at all," said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.
So far, most of the studies looking at the effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron have focused on neutralizing antibodies, which latch on to the virus and prevent it from entering and infecting cells. Blood test results from fully vaccinated people show Omicron has learned to escape neutralization; a booster dose might restore that protection.
Immune system T cells, which destroy infected cells, also appear still to be able to recognize the variant. Many experts believe this second line of defense will prevent hospitalizations and deaths.
"You still have a lot of people who are susceptible" because they are not yet vaccinated, said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at New York University. She said that was among the reasons she believes it will be some time before the world moves from pandemic to endemic COVID-19.
In the meantime, living with COVID in 2022 will likely mean assessing local risks and protecting oneself through vaccination, masking and social distancing.
"When I go to the store this afternoon, what helps me is to know how much COVID is in my community," said Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco.
"There will not be one state of the pandemic. There will be different states for different people and for different regions," he said. "And that's going to be the way it is for the foreseeable future."
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
"Case numbers are no longer the metric ... the real measure is what does it mean for serious illness, (intensive care), hospitalisation, pressures on the hospital system," Morrison said during a media briefing on Friday.
He said initial signs suggest the Omicron variant could be less severe than other variants.
At least 97 cases, including some potential Omicron ones, have been detected among people who attended the Taylor Swift theme party.
More than 600 people who checked in at the venue must test and self-isolate but officials flagged there could have been more guests.
A record 3,820 cases were reported in Australia on Friday, with the bulk in its most populous states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, exceeding the previous high of around 3,400 a day earlier.
NSW authorities have warned daily cases could hit 25,000 in the state by the end of January with authorities looking to accelerate the rollout of booster vaccine shots to ward off the threat from the Omicron strain.
Health officials blamed gatherings at pubs and clubs for the "rapid rise" in cases. "Some of these have led to super-spreading events," NSW health official Jeremy McAnulty said.
Neighbouring Victoria, meanwhile, is on alert after an Omicron-infected person attended a busy pub and hotel in Melbourne.
Australia has reported around 243,000 cases and 2,134 deaths since the pandemic began.
PARIS: About 110,000 fake health passes are in circulation in France, the interior ministry said on Thursday (Dec 16), with hundreds of investigations launched against makers and users of the forged documents.
The health pass, showing proof of vaccination, COVID-19 recovery or a recent negative test result, is required for access to public transport, restaurants and cultural events.
As they investigate users and distributors of the fake documents, police have found that medical staff are sometimes complicit in the fraud, said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
"The problem with the fake health passes is that they often involve the collusion of real doctors or real nurses," he told the France 2 broadcaster. This makes offences "very difficult to prove".
About 100 people had been arrested as a result of 400 investigations since the health pass became mandatory in parts of public life, Darmanin said.
They risk up to five years in prison, he said, adding that some have already been sentenced to suspended or actual jail terms.
Last month, a doctor who allegedly sold at least 220 fake health passes in the Paris region was charged and detained.
Darmanin said he was in favour of dropping cases against users of fake health passes who agreed to get a real one legally instead.
The French government has warned that the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care could reach 4,000 during the Christmas season, compared to 3,000 now.
It is promoting booster vaccine shots to control the worst of the onslaught of the Omicron variant, and has warned that health passes will no longer be valid from mid-January unless holders get a vaccine top-up.
TOKYO: Japan on Thursday (Dec 16) officially approved Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for its booster shot programme, while Novavax filed for first approval of its shot in the country.
Moderna's mRNA-type vaccine, used mostly in Japan to date at workplace inoculation sites, was approved for used as a third booster shot for those aged 18 or older, following a recommendation from health ministry experts on Wednesday.
That is the same age range applied to the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which has been given out about 93,000 times as a booster through Wednesday, taking in about 0.1 per cent of the population.
Novavax's protein-based vaccine was submitted to regulators by its Japanese distributor Takeda Pharmaceutical, the company said in a statement. Pending approval, Takeda plans to make the vaccine in Japan and distribute it in early 2022.
After a relatively late start, Japan has fully inoculated almost 80 per cent of its population, the highest among Group of Seven economies. The country has about 31 million doses left between the Pfizer and Moderna shots, with deals in place to get 170 million more in 2022.
The study, which was conducted from Oct 1 to Nov 21, involved people aged 40 and above who received two doses of the vaccines under the national vaccination programme.
Of the 1.25 million people covered in the study, 62,900 had COVID-19 and 1,710 were considered severe cases.
Most of them - 73.7 per cent - took the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine, while 23.9 per cent received the Moderna shots and 2.4 per cent received the Sinovac vaccine.
"The analysis accounted for differences in age, gender, race, housing type and the daily differences in infection rate," said NCID and MOH.
They recommended that those who have already received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine get a dose of an authorised mRNA vaccine as the third dose of their primary vaccination series.
"Otherwise, they should complete their primary series with a third dose of the Sinovac-CoronaVac."
