Italy among the countries with the highest number of cases of the variant
(ANSA) – GENEVA, DEC 29 – The risk represented in the world by the Omicron variant of Covid-19 remains “very high”, announced today the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The global risk linked to the new worrying variant remains very high”, warns the WHO in its weekly epidemiological bulletin. “Reliable evidence shows that Omicron has a growth advantage over the Delta variant, with a capacity to double in two or three days,” adds the organization noting that “there is a rapid increase in the incidence of cases in a number of villages”.
“The rapid growth is probably linked to a combination of the loss of immunity and the intrinsic increase in transmissibility of the Omicron variant,” says the WHO, however, highlighting the 29% decrease in the incidence of cases in South Africa, the country that for first reported this variant on November 24. WHO had indicated that data from the UK, South Africa and Denmark – which currently have the highest rates of infection – suggested a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared to the Delta variant. However, more data would be needed to understand Omicron’s severity in terms of clinical markers, including oxygen use, mechanical ventilation and deaths. And also how this severity could be affected by a previous Covid-19 infection or vaccination. According to the WHO, in the week ending Sunday the total number of new cases increased by 11% compared to the previous one, while the number of deaths decreased by 4%. “This corresponds to just under 5 million new cases and over 44,000 new deaths.” The largest number of cases were recorded in the United States, United States, France and Italy. (HANDLE).