Omicron variant already represents 75% of covid-19 cases in Portugal
The omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes covid-19 disease, reached an estimated 75% on Monday, according to a report by the Doctor Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute (INSA).
The report on the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal indicates that there was an “exponential growth” of probable cases of the omicron variant, while there was a reduction in the circulation of the delta variant.
The data indicate that an omicron variant is dominant in Portugal (more than 50% of cases) and that, according to INSA, this “sudden increase in community circulation has a community parallel with the scenario observed in other countries, such as Denmark, for example. and the United Kingdom”.
The report, carried out by the Bioinformatics Nucleus of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the INSA, said that until this Tuesday, 24,198 sequences of the genome of the new coronavirus had been analyzed. councils of Portugal.
An average of 533 sequences per week have been analyzed since the beginning of June 2021, randomly collected in laboratories distributed throughout the 18 districts of mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira, covering an average of 129 municipalities per week.
In week 50, from December 13th to 19th, the omicron worry variant registered a provisional relative frequency of 10.1% (data calculated up to December 14th).
“According to the characteristics based on the real-time monitoring strategy of the ‘failure’ in the detection of the S gene, since the 6th of December there has been an exponential growth in the proportion of probable cases of the omicron variant, having an estimate estimate of 75% on the 27th of December”, says the INSA in the report.
As for the delta variant, the report indicates that since week 47 (November 22 to 28) its relative frequency has been decreasing, “as a result of the abrupt increase in circulation of the omicron variant, still standing out as lines AY.4.2 and AY.43.5, with relative frequencies close to 5% in recent weeks, although its circulation is expected to decrease in the next few weeks”, says the INSA.