Although the mutation is spreading rapidly worldwide, it appears less pathogenic than what was initially feared, and raised hopes that the pandemic could be overcome.
However, Catherine Smallwood, emergency manager of the WHO, told Agence France-Presse that the sharp increase in infection rates could have the opposite effect. "The more Omicron spreads, the more it spreads and the more it reproduces, the more it is likely to produce a new mutation," she
explained.[/B]
"Today Omicron is lethal, it can cause death () Maybe a little less than Delta, but who can say what the next mutation might cause?" he asked.
Europe has recorded more than 100 million cases of Covid since the start of the pandemic, and more than five million new cases in the last week of 2021, which "dwarfs almost everything we've seen so far," Smallwood added.
"We are in a very dangerous phase, infection rates are rising particularly in western Europe and the true impact of this is not yet clear," he said. Although "at an individual level, the risk of hospitalisation is probably lower" with the Omicron mutation than with Delta, overall, Omicron may pose a much greater threat because of the number of cases, he added. "When the number of cases increases so much, it is likely that a much larger number of people with serious illnesses will be hospitalised or even die," he noted."
The UK, which announced yesterday that it recorded more than 200,000 new daily cases for the first time, is threatened with a hospital crisis because of staff shortages caused by the Omicron surge. Neighbouring France has recorded about 270,000 cases, a record number since the start of the pandemic. Smallwood said she expects similar scenarios in other European countries: "Even in large and sophisticated health systems there are real challenges at the moment, and it is likely that this will be repeated in the region given that Omicron will cause an increase in cases."
Source: APM
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
