Omicron, The New Covid Variant Kills 8 In South Africa
The new Covid-19 strain detected in South Africa with a high number of mutations coupled with the fact that the new variant has recorded about 8 death cases, hence it has raised concerns among scientists and triggered travel restrictions by many countries amid fears of coronavirus transmissions and coupled with the fact that the transmission means is not yet verified nor full details served yet about the new mutation.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said 22 positive cases of the new variant have been recorded in the country following genomic sequencing. News of the announcement broke on Thursday.
From Monday, 29th of November, 2021, flights from African countries such as Malawi Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe would be blocked says a report form the EU to which the US, UK and some other countries have also taken into as these countries have been red-flagged. Though some countries made exceptions for those that are their nationals.
The new variant scientifically named as "Omicron" is said to have a higher re-infection risk. As of Friday, the said number of cases of this new Covid variant appeared to be increasing in almost all of South Africa's provinces. The NICD said "the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 a.k.a Omicron infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November".
The WHO said it would take a few weeks to understand the impact of the new variant, as scientists worked to determine how transmissible it was. Amidst researches, a top UK health official warned that Covid-19 vaccines would "almost certainly" be less effective against the new Covid variant.
Mutations in the variant suggested it may spread more quickly but transmissibility "is not just as simple as 'this amino acid does this' and was determined by how mutations worked together.
South Africa has the highest pandemic numbers in Africa with approximately 2.95 million cases, of which 89,657 have been fatal.
Approximately 41 percent of adults in South Africa have received at least one dose, while 35 percent are fully vaccinated. Those numbers are far above the continental average of 6.6 percent of people vaccinated.
Latest news on the break of the new Covid-19 variant, omicron which emerged with first cases in South Africa. Some major countries and also health organizations have taken strict measures towards the country concerning the outbreak and alas, the South African government laments that it is being punished rather than being praised for discovering and reporting the new variant of the Covid-19.
The foreign ministry made the statement as countries around the world restricted travel from Southern Africa as details of the spread emerged.
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