The heavily mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been spreading across the world at a remarkable speed. So far, the variant has been reported in 77 countries, faster than any other strain, as per the World Health Organization (WHO).
Amid the sudden surge, the global experts are focusing on inoculating the population as soon as possible. “Countries can and must prevent the spread of Omicron with proven health and social measures. Our focus must continue to be to protect the least protected and those at high risk,” Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region told News18. She added that so far, the overall threat posed by Omicron largely depends on three key questions – its transmissibility; how well the vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect against it, and how virulent the variant is as compared to other variants.
Omicron appears to spread faster than the Delta variant which wreaked havoc in early 2021, the Regional Director added.
Singh further mentioned that there is an increased risk of re-infection with Omicron and there is still limited data on the clinical severity associated with Omicron, further information is needed to fully understand the clinical picture of those infected with Omicron. And added that Omicron should not be dismissed as mild, even if it does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm health systems. Hence, health care capacity including ICU beds, oxygen availability, adequate health care staff, and surge capacity needs to be reviewed and strengthened at all levels, Singh added.
Impact of the new variant on vaccines
Talking about the impact of the heavily mutated variant on the vaccines, Singh said the preliminary data suggest that vaccines may likely have reduced effectiveness against infections by the Omicron variant. However, studies are underway to better understand the extent to which Omicron may evade vaccine and/or infection-derived immunity and the extent to which current vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and death associated with Omicron.
Globally, the pandemic is driven by the Delta variant, against which the vaccines continue to provide a robust level of protection from severe disease, hospitalization, and death. Hence, our efforts to scale-up vaccination coverage must continue.
With the World Health Organization (WHO) granting emergency approval to Covovax, a top Indian government scientist has recommended that it be used as a booster shot to counter the threat posed by the Omicron variant of coronavirus. Anurag Agrawal, one of the directors of the government’s genome sequencing monitoring agency INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium), told India Today, Covovax “induces a strong immune response and has an excellent safety profile.”
Covovax is the Indian version of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc and manufactured under licence by the Serum Institute of India (SII). It is a recombinant protein vaccine that uses spike proteins to teach the body how to develop immunity against the novel coronavirus.
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