Amid the growing fears over new COVID-19 variant Omicron, the director of South Africa’s communicable disease institute said on Tuesday that Omicron has the potential to outcompete the deadly Delta variant of coronavirus.
The discovery of Omicron in South Africa has sparked concerns across the globe with several countries putting restrictions on flights from South Africa in order to curb the spread of the new virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has dubbed Omicron ‘a variant of concern’ saying that it carries a high risk of infection.
“We thought what will outcompete Delta? That has always been the question, in terms of transmissibility at least, … perhaps this particular variant is the variant,” Adrian Puren, acting executive director of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), told Reuters in an interview.
If Omicron outcompete Delta variant in terms of transmission then it could cause very sharp spike in COVID-19 cases across the world.
Meanwhile, The University of Oxford on Tuesday said there was no evidence that vaccines would not prevent severe disease from Omicron, but that it was ready to rapidly develop an updated version of its vaccine developed with AstraZeneca if necessary.
Earlier on Tuesday, the head of drugmaker Moderna said that COVID-19 shots were unlikely to be as effective against the variant, jolting global markets.
