CORONAVÍRUS The new variant is even more contagious: However, patients are still mild – Topky

“Over the past ten days, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of cases. So far, most of them have been very mild cases – patients have had flu-like symptoms: dry cough, fever, night sweats and especially body pain.” said Unben Pillay, a general practitioner operating in South Africa ‘s most populous province, Gauteng, which accounts for up to 81 percent of all new cases in the country. “Most of these patients were treated at home.” Pillay approached during a virtual press conference.

“Vaccinated people are doing much better. We haven’t seen a big increase in the number of hospitalizations, but this is just the beginning. Hospitalizations often come a few days after the increase in confirmed cases (infections),” Pillay warned. Most of the newly infected in South Africa are people between the ages of 20 and 40 who, according to doctors, generally have milder symptoms of COVID-19. Therefore, they warn that older people infected with omicron could have a more serious course of the disease.

It is even more contagious than previous variants

The seven-day average of new cases in the South Africa has risen sharply in the last two weeks from 200 per day to over 2,000, the AP notes. Researchers are intensively researching the new omikrom variant to find out how it differs from the currently dominant delta variant. However, according to infectious disease expert Salim Abdool Karim, it is clear that it is even more contagious than previous variants. It is possible that South African authorities will report up to 10,000 new cases a day later this week, Karim said.

According to the South African Ministry of Health, the vast majority of newly infected people are not vaccinated against covid. The omicron variant was first reported by the WHO on 24 November in southern Africa, where the number of cases suddenly rose sharply. Since then, it has spread around the world and new cases have appeared in the Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia and other countries around the world. Suspicions of omicron were also reported by France on Monday.