A little bit of news came to us today about the new COVID-19 variant Omicron, which has emerged recently and frightened us all with its high spreading power.
Noting that they have been collecting data on the Omicron variant without a break since its emergence, World Health Organization (WHO) Spokesperson Christian Lindmer noted that the new variant did not cause an increase in death rates and that they thought that the increase in hospitalizations in South Africa was probably not due to Omicron.
Omicron is predicted to be the active variant for the next few months
The rapidly spreading Omicron variant is expected to be the ‘active variant’ over the next few months; however, according to WHO’s determinations, the virus has not yet caused a change in death rates. In a statement on its official website, WHO used expressions for the increase in hospitalization rates in South Africa, “This may not be due to the Omicron variant, but to the increase in the total number of infected people.”
Bloomberg, who carried out a detailed research on the new mutation, noted that they reached two different theories as a result of their research. According to the first of these theories, the COVID-19 virus may have evolved into Omicron by staying in the body of an immunocompromised person longer than normal. Another theory is that a person with COVID-19 may have transmitted the virus to an animal and the virus may have mutated in that animal’s body. The mutated virus could thus be transmitted from an animal to a human again.
On the other hand, scientists do not have enough data for the confirmation of both theories for now. Experts hope to reach a more precise conclusion by comparing the new information with the older variants as more data comes in.
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