Nagpur: The newly-detected variant of Covid-19, which was first identified in South Africa has now been detected in various countries such as the US and South Korea, raising alarm across the globe.
The first known case detected in the US was a fully vaccinated person in California who had returned to the US from South Africa on November 22 and was tested positive seven days later. White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said, “Today, the CDC has confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant detected in the United States.” The returnee had mild symptoms and had self-quarantined himself, as per Dr Anthon Fauci.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the new variant has comparatively higher risk than the other Covid-19 variants and has termed that the transmissibility is ‘very high.’ Till now, more than 20 countries have detected the variant.
In South Africa, the early PCR test samples reveal that 90 per cent of 1,100 cases reported last week were caused by the new variant in Johannesburg. According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the daily number of new confirmed cases almost doubled to 8,561 infections.
In the United Kingdom, five cases have been detected and are linked to travelers who came from South Africa. In Germany, two travelers from South Africa who returned to Munich were detected to have the Omicron variant. Cases have been confirmed in UAE, Brazil, Japan and Australia.
