THE Omicron variant of Covid-19, first identified in South Africa, has now been detected in countries from the US to South Korea, underscoring the difficulties of curtailing contagious new strains.
Most infections stem from travelers carrying the disease across borders. Israel, for instance, said a confirmed case who arrived from Malawi rode on a bus from Tel Aviv.
Italy’s first case traveled around the country for days before testing positive. The first omicron case was confirmed in the US in a person who returned from South Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Researchers worldwide are racing to understand the full impact of the new strain, and governments have banned travelers from South Africa and nearby countries on concerns omicron could evade the protection of vaccines and fuel new surges.
South Africa’s daily number of confirmed Covid-19 cases almost doubled from Tuesday as the omicron variant takes hold. The country recorded 8,561 infections in the last 24 hours and a positivity rate of 16.5% on tests, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
South Africa Early PCR test samples showed that 90% of 1,100 new cases reported midweek in the province that includes Johannesburg were caused by the Omicron variant.
The Omicron variant was found in 74% of the 249 Covid-19 samples that were gene-sequenced in November, the institute said. The delta variant accounted for 22%, compared with 79% in October. Omicron was found in samples in five out of the country’s nine provinces.
- Bloomberg
