“The indications of the increased risk of infection with the Omikron variant and its easier transferability have recently become more concentrated. Among other things, the doubling time of the Omikron cases in Great Britain speaks in favor of it, which was last given as 2.5 days, “says Bernd Lamprecht, Corona expert and director of the pulmonary clinic at the Kepler University Hospital in Linz.
“The protection provided by the available vaccines seems to have been reduced on the basis of the studies available to date, but not completely abolished,” said the expert. The booster vaccination is likely to be particularly important, as it can compensate for part of the loss of effectiveness of the vaccines. Here, too, the UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency) has had its first assessments since last Friday, which assume that the protection provided by two vaccinations against Omikron is around 30 percent below that of the currently prevailing delta variant.
According to Lamprecht, the booster vaccination in the case of the Omikron variant should protect 75 percent against symptomatic illness. A protection of more than 90 percent, as is possible with the booster vaccination against Delta, should not be achieved. “These are provisional data that will undoubtedly have to be confirmed in the coming days and weeks and are subject to a certain degree of uncertainty until then,” said Lamprecht.
The disease tends to be milder
Observations from South Africa would tend to indicate milder courses of the disease, but the average age of those affected and the fact that the rate of those previously recovered must be taken into account must be very high. Confirming experiences from Europe are not yet available.
“But even if the hospitalization rate at Omikron were lower than at Delta, there would be very high numbers of infections – and these would be feared if there was an increased risk of infection – again a risk of overburdening hospitals,” fears the expert.
In any case, in Great Britain it is expected that Omikron will become the dominant virus variant as early as January. In the rest of Europe it should take a few more weeks. “In any case, it is important and advisable to watch the case in Great Britain carefully,” said Lamprecht.
Source: Nachrichten
