Europe 1 with AFP 6:46 am, November 29, 2021

While the coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than five million people worldwide since the end of 2019, the appearance of the Omicron variant is disrupting health measures in many countries.

While PCR tests are still effective against the new variant, studies are underway to measure the effectiveness of other diagnostic tools.

PCR tests are still effective against the new variant of the coronavirus Omicron and studies are underway to measure the effectiveness of other diagnostic tools, the WHO said on Sunday.

While the pandemic has already claimed more than five million lives worldwide since the end of 2019, the World Health Organization on Friday described the new variant as "worrying".

On Sunday, the Geneva-based organization said in a statement that "PCR tests (...) continue to detect infection, including infection with Omicron."

Several countries are closing their borders

The WHO added that "studies are underway to determine whether there is an impact on other types of tests, including rapid antigen detection tests."

Identified in South Africa, Omicron pushed many countries to close their borders to southern Africa when they had sometimes barely reopened to the world.

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Preliminary data suggests that the Omicron variant presents "an increased risk of reinfection" compared to other variants including Delta, dominant and already highly contagious, according to the WHO, which indicates that more information on this subject will be available in the literature. days and weeks to come.

Never has a variant caused so much concern in the world since the emergence of Delta.

WHO does not yet know whether Omicron is more easily transmitted than other variants.

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"The number of people testing positive has increased in parts of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiological studies are underway to understand whether this is due to Omicron or to other factors," she said. indicated on Sunday.

WHO also does not know whether it causes more severe forms of the disease.

According to the statement, "preliminary data suggests an increase in hospitalization rates in South Africa, but this could be due to the increase in the total number of people infected," rather than Omicron.

"Several weeks to understand the virulence of the variant"

For the WHO, there is currently no information to suggest that the symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those caused by the other variants, but it will take "several days to several weeks to understand the level of virulence of the variant".

According to the WHO, a SARS-CoV-2 variant is considered to be of concern when associated with one or more changes, such as increased transmissibility or virulence, decreased effectiveness of health measures public and social or diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments available.

There were so far 4 other variants of concern, the highest level: Delta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma.

Further down the scale, there are the "variants to watch" (Lambda and Mu).