Health experts insist there’s no need for panic over Omicron

THERE is no need for panic or overreaction following the identification of Omicron, the latest Covid-19 variant, says the country’s leading epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim.

The breakthrough was referred to as a “scientific success” due to the early identification by South African scientists and as a result of the investment the country has made into science, said Karim. The variant was first described in Botswana and shortly thereafter in South Africa.

This comes as Thailand and Rwanda added themselves to a list of countries which have closed their borders to southern Africa since this sequencing of the latest Covid-19 strain.

After Sunday’s presidential address, Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, Karim and health experts held a media briefing to further unpack the address and present the state of readiness to respond to the variant of concern, Omicron.

“We were not caught with our pants down. We expected and prepared for a new variant and a fourth wave as far back as September,” said Karim.

He said diagnostic tests used in South Africa would do “quite well” in detecting Omicron. With not enough data and too few cases of it studied, not much was known about the clinical presentation of Omicron and if it was worse than its predecessors. However, anecdotal information suggests similar presenting illnesses as with other variants, and mainly in younger people due to fewer young people having been vaccinated, said Karim.

Current treatment for Covid-19 was effective against Omicron, with no reason or evidence to suggest otherwise. “The area that has created the concern, and this global over-reaction, is that we’re not sure about whether the current vaccines will protect against this new variant, and there’s some evidence, preliminary as it is, that we can see that the mutations that occur may confer some level of immune escape from antibodies.

“So we can expect to see more reinfections for those who had natural infection without being vaccinated and we may see them getting infected again because this variant will bypass some of that immunity,” said Karim.

National Institute for Communicable Diseases Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response head, Dr Michelle Groome, said the country saw the lowest case numbers since the start of the pandemic in mid-November. Now, it was reporting just under 2 000 cases, compared with the less than 300 previously seen, according to the 7-day moving average.

Dr Phaahla said: “We are doing everything possible to make sure that our health facilities are ready.”

He said South Africa would be joining a special World Health Assembly dealing with the strengthening of the global response to the pandemic. The country would also be presenting a statement on behalf of southern Africa to condemn the actions of those who have imposed travel bans.