{"id":143244,"date":"2021-12-12T13:29:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T17:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=143244"},"modified":"2021-12-12T13:29:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T17:29:28","slug":"omicron-spreads-faster-and-weakens-jabs-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/omicron-spreads-faster-and-weakens-jabs-who\/","title":{"rendered":"Omicron spreads faster and weakens jabs \u2014 WHO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain and reduces vaccine efficacy but causes less severe symptoms according to early data, the World Health Organization said Sunday.<\/p>

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The Delta variant, first identified in India earlier this year, is responsible for most of the world\u2019s coronavirus infections.<\/p>\n

But South Africa\u2019s discovery of Omicron \u2014 which has a large number of mutations \u2014 last month prompted countries around the world to impose travel bans on southern African countries and reintroduce domestic restrictions to slow its spread.<\/p>

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The WHO said Omicron had spread to 63 countries as of December 9. Faster transmission was noted in South Africa, where Delta is less prevalent, and in Britain, where Delta is the dominant strain.<\/p>

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But it stressed that a lack of data meant it could not say if Omicron\u2019s rate of transmission was because it was less prone to immune responses, higher transmissibility or a combination of both.<\/p>\n

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Early evidence suggests Omicron causes \u201ca reduction in vaccine efficacy against infection and transmission\u201d, the WHO said in a technical brief.<\/p>

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\u201cGiven the current available data, it is likely that Omicron will outpace the Delta variant where community transmission occurs,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Omicron infections have so far caused \u201cmild\u201d illness or asymptomatic cases, but the WHO said the data was insufficient to establish the variant\u2019s clinical severity.<\/p>

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South Africa reported Omicron to the WHO on November 24. Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer\/BioNTech last week said three doses of their jabs were still effective against Omicron.<\/p>

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Countries with sufficient vaccine supplies such as Britain and France have encouraged their populations to receive a third \u201cbooster\u201d jab to fight Omicron.<\/p>\n

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The Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain and reduces vaccine efficacy but causes less severe symptoms according to early data, the World Health Organization said Sunday. The Delta variant, first identified in India earlier this year, is responsible for most of the world\u2019s coronavirus infections. But South Africa\u2019s discovery of Omicron […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional"],"yoast_head":"\nOmicron spreads faster and weakens jabs \u2014 WHO - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/omicron-spreads-faster-and-weakens-jabs-who\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Omicron spreads faster and weakens jabs \u2014 WHO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain and reduces vaccine efficacy but causes less severe symptoms according to early data, the World Health Organization said Sunday. 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