How is Slovakia prepared for a new variant of the coronavirus omicron? – SME.sk

29. Nov 2021 at 21:40 I Paid content

PCR assays may not capture the variant.

BRATISLAVA. Probably the most infectious mutation so far coronavirus omicron may be the biggest threat to the world and Slovakia, but it can also end the whole pandemic.

Slovakia is currently preparing for a pessimistic scenario and is introducing a quarantine for returnees from high-risk countries. In Slovakia, Omikron may cause the failure of accurate PCR tests to fail, and in open schools it may also endanger children, who may also expand it more quickly.

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“Awaiting a key finding – what a serious disease omicron is causing. This will decide whether the pandemic will be even more serious or near the end,” says mathematician Richard Kollár.

On the one hand, the mutation, which was first identified just three weeks ago in Botswana and Republic of South Africa, is spreading around the world rapidly, on the other hand, hospitals in most cases report only mild manifestations of the disease with a weak cough.

However, the overall global risk associated with the new omicron variant is assessed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as very high.

Can Slovakia still avoid omicron? What is the risk of open schools, where can it be ascertained whether the omikron variants are already infected and why can people protected only by overcoming the virus have a problem?

The SME daily prepared a series of questions and answers.

1. Can omikron Slovakia bypass?

He can’t. The probability that the new mutation will or has already reached Slovakia is high.

“It is only a matter of time before the omicron is discovered in Slovakia, if it is not already here,” says Tatiana Betáková, virologist at the Biomedical Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences from the Faculty of Science, Comenius University in Bratislava.

The presence of the virus in Slovakia is already expected by the main epidemiologist of the Ministry of Health, Henrieta Hudečková.

1. Can omikron Slovakia bypass?

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