Omicron, South Africa: cases quadrupled in 4 days

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03 December 2021A jump in 24 hours of 16,055 more infected by Omicron, quadrupled in 4 days in South Africa. No deaths. But a peak in hospitalizations of children under the age of five. The data coming from the African country show the run of the variant. On the greater or lesser lethality compared to previous viruses, there is still no scientific evidence.

In the results of a study carried out by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of Africa - a survey that is based on the analysis of 2 million 796 thousand people with Sars-Cov2 in the country between March 2020 and November 2021 - "the variant is associated with a significant ability to evade acquired immunity from previous infections with the virus". 

The institute says that there is still no certainty that Omicron can evade the immunity given by vaccines, or if it reduces it.

The alarm on the new variant is partially mitigated by WHO data which, in the face of the surge in infections, reports a lower aggressiveness of Omicron: "No deaths related to the variant despite having already reached 38 countries in the world "- so sources of the World Health Organization.

According to the founder of the German BioNtech - a company that together with Pfizer developed the mRna vaccine - Ugur Sahin, reports ANSA "it is a virus for which current vaccines may soon not be enough". 

The founder of BioNtech says he is convinced that "an ad hoc serum may be needed to block the incredible pace of the new variant".

The production times would take at least three months: "The development is very complex and is divided into many phases: it lasts about 100 days".