More than two months since South African doctors first reported the Omicron variant to the World Health Organization on November 24, 2021, it has spread rapidly across the globe. This prompted the WHO chief to describe the wave of new infections as a “tsunami of cases”. Health experts said if there’s good news in the latest surge of Covid-19 infections in many countries, it’s the fact that the Omicron variant does not seem to make people as sick. Many hospitals have confirmed that fewer patients need intensive care or help breathing with a ventilator.
Janet Diaz, WHO clinical management chief, said Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant. She said early studies showed there was a reduced risk of hospitalization from the variant compared with Delta. “There appears also to be a reduced risk of severity in both younger and older people, but uncertainties remain”.
“We are seeing less acuity, less severity, even among the people who do end up hospitalized,” said Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease specialist at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “This is the silver lining of Omicron. It’s spreading widely; many people are getting infected, but mildly to moderately.”
From the Associated Press: “World health officials are offering hope that the ebbing of the Omicron wave could give way to a new, more manageable phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, even as they warn of difficult weeks ahead and the possibility of another, more dangerous variant arising. In the US, cases have crested and are dropping rapidly, following a pattern seen in Britain and South Africa, with researchers projecting a period of low spread in many countries by the end of March. One influential model projects that nearly all nations will be past the Omicron wave by mid-March, including China and other countries with “zero Covid” policies. The wave will leave behind high levels of immunity — both from infection and vaccination—that could lead to low levels of transmission for many weeks or months.”
In Metro Manila, Covid-19 cases are now on a downward trend after it reached its peak earlier this month, according to the Department of Health. In a press briefing on Monday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said they observed that the daily cases and the contribution of the National Capital Region to the country’s Covid-19 total caseload has been declining. OCTA Research Group member Guido David confirmed Duque’s statement citing they also came up with similar findings. He said daily Covid-19 cases in NCR reached its peak on January 10, 2022 at 18,000 cases.A similar trend also occurred in South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first reported. Cases in the African country rose for over two weeks before it started to drop. “Our experience is in line more or less with that of South Africa,” David said, adding that if the downward trend continues, the daily Covid cases in NCR may drop below 1,000 by Valentine’s Day (Read, “Daily Covid-19 cases in NCR on downward trend,” in the BusinessMirror, January 24, 2022).
This development prompted Duque to say the NCR is ready to go down to Alert Level 2 should the government decide for a less restrictive level by February. He described as “good” the NCR’s vaccination coverage, saying the government is confident that individuals would strictly observe the minimum public health standards.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday warned that conditions remain ideal for more coronavirus variants to emerge and it’s dangerous to assume Omicron is the last one or that “we are in the endgame.” He said there are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could end, and “it’s dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the endgame. On the contrary, globally, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge”. But he insisted that “we can end Covid-19 as a global health emergency, and we can do it this year,” by reaching goals like WHO’s target to vaccinate 70 percent of the population of each country by the middle of this year, with a focus on people who are at the highest risk of Covid-19, and improving testing and sequencing rates to track the virus and its emerging variants more closely.