Amid the panic around the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is continuing to rise, the WHO warned that the variant poses a very high global risk on the basis of early studies. WHO has also warned that the variant could lead to surges in cases having severe consequences.
As scientists and health authorities are racing to gather more information, more and more countries have started restricting international travel for countries having this variant, including South Africa and Bostwana. Meanwhile, the South African government has protested against the rapid closure of international borders for travellers from the country.
The early observations globally suggest that the Omicron variant of coronavirus may be more contagious and may have a higher risk of reinfection as compared to the Delta and Beta variants of the virus, said Singapore’s Ministry of Health.
Channel News Asia quoted the ministry as saying on Sunday in an update on the Omicron variant, “This means that there is a higher likelihood of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 to be reinfected with the Omicron variant.”
Meanwhile, one more “preliminarily positive” Omicron case has been reported in the city on Sunday. The 37-year-old vaccinated permanent resident was on the same flight as two other “preliminary positive” cases that landed here from South Africa on December 1.
Singapore also reported 552 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and 13 deaths linked to the coronavirus.
“While Omicron has posed be a new threat, the widely used RTPCR tests continue to detect infection, including infection with Omicron, as we have seen with other variants as well according to WHO. RT PCR Kits from Genes2Me, having three SARS-CoV-2 specific gene targets (RdRp, E and N gene), are much advance than other Kits with two gene targets as some studies indicates that high number of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 genome (~50 mutations in the case of Omicron) can lead to false-negative results and these can be reduced significantly by targeting more sequences within the viral genome. Kits containing “S Gene” may also give false negative results since this gene may not get amplified due to high number of mutations in Spike protein. We have also developed extraction free RTPCR kit with 3 Gene specification which can also easily detect infected individual due to Omnicron or delta variant in just 40 minutes”, said Neeraj Gupta, Founder and CEO, Genes2Me Pvt Ltd
Studies on whether existing coronavirus vaccines are effective against the new variant are continuing, but “there is an emerging view amongst scientists around the world that existing COVID-19 vaccines will still work on the Omicron variant, especially in protecting people against severe illness,” the MOH said.
The ministry urged those eligible to need themselves vaccinated or choose their booster jabs, saying there’s strong scientific consensus that doing so will protect against any existing and future variants of COVID-19. Addressing concerns regarding the severity of the strain of the virus, the MOH said Omicron cases have “mostly displayed mild symptoms, and no Omicron-related deaths are reported so far”.
Common symptoms reported include sore throat, tiredness and cough, the ministry added. As for reports that there have been more Omicron-related hospitalisations among younger people in South Africa , the ministry said this might flow from to an overall high infection rate among the population.