Omicron Will Soon Replace Delta Globally, Has Spread To 171 Countries, Says WHO, Endemicity Could Be Near

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 that was first identified in South Africa in late November 2021 has since spread across the globe and cases have been reported from 171 countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

In its latest technical brief, the global health body said that Omicron is soon set to replace Delta globally as a result of its immunity evading potential.

AP

It stated that Omicron has been found to have a significant growth advantage, higher secondary attack rates, and a higher observed reproduction number compared to Delta.

"As of January 20, the Omicron variant has been identified in 171 countries. The variant has rapidly outpaced Delta in most countries, driving an upsurge of cases in all regions.

The global health body said there "is significant evidence" to show that immune evasion contributes to the rapid spread of Omicron.

However, the WHO said further research is needed to better understand the relative contribution of intrinsic increased transmissibility and immune evasion in explaining transmission dynamics.

AP

Although the infection caused by the highly contagious strain is touted to be mild, the WHO said that current evidence shows that the overall risk related to Omicron remains very high and its spread in the community is much more than during previous Covid variants.

Despite a lower risk of severe disease and death following infection than previous SARS-CoV-2 variants, the very high levels of transmission have also resulted in significant increases in hospitalisation.

With Omicron being mild there are renewed hopes of the pandemic finally ending in 2022. Experts are, however, divided on if COVID-19 has passed the pandemic stage and is on to endemic.

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"It's plausible that Europe is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame," Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview, adding that Omicron could infect 60 percent of Europeans by March.

Once the current surge of Omicron sweeping across Europe subsides, "there will be for quite some weeks and months a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection, and also lowering seasonality".

AFP

"We anticipate that there will be a period of quiet before Covid-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back," Kluge said.

"With the increase of immunity in population -- and with Omicron, there will be a lot of natural immunity taking place on top of vaccination -- we will be fast moving towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity," Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

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