In a joint statement, renowned experts cautioned that the Omicron variation will not be the final strain of SARS-COV-2, the Coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 sickness, that will wreak havoc over the world.
The virus might evolve even more with each new infection. In comparison to its predecessors, the Omicron variety already possesses a considerable number of mutations. The Omicron variety is spreading at an unprecedented rate, despite having a robust network of immunity from vaccines and past infections.
Scientists are unsure how the new varieties will behave and how they will affect the pandemic’s path as the virus continues to change by moving from one host to another.
However, one thing is certain: Omicron’s descendants will not induce milder sickness and will be immune to immunizations and previous infections.
According to Leonardo Martinez, an infectious disease researcher at Boston University, the Omicron form first appeared in November of last year and has since spread like wildfire over the world.
It’s twice as contagious as Delta and four times as contagious as the virus’s original strain, which surfaced in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
The faster the Omicron variation moves from one host to the next, the more opportunity it finds to evolve further, perhaps leading to more contagious variants, according to Leonardo Martinez.
Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, believes that vaccination, as well as facemask use, hand sanitization, and social isolation, can help to prevent the spread of new variations.
Despite the fact that the Omicron variety is stronger at evading immunity than the Delta strain, COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation, and fatality.
Millions of unvaccinated people across Asia, Latin America, Central America, and Africa, according to Dr. Prabhat Jha of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, are breeding grounds for new variants, owing to a failure of global public health agencies to ensure equal distribution of Coronavirus vaccines worldwide.
According to Louis Mansky, director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Molecular Virology, new and more contagious variants of the virus will emerge in the coming months, but the virus will remain in control of the pandemic unless a significant majority of the world’s population is vaccinated against Coronavirus.
To read our blog on “First case of COVID-19 Omicron Variant has reported in Pakistan,” click here.
