WHO Ómicron’s risk remains “very high”. Variant represents 75% of cases in Portugal
“The overall risk linked to the worrying new Omicron variant remains very high,” warns the WHO in the weekly epidemiological bulletin.
That salient organism that “reliable evidence demonstrates that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant, with a doubling rate of two to three days.” The WHO also refers that “there is a rapid growth in the occurrence of cases in several countries”.
The Omicron variant, considered of concern by WHO, has been detected in southern Africa, but since the South African health authorities issued the alert on 24 November, infections have been reported in at least 110 countries, being dominant in Portugal.
75% of cases in Portugal
In Portugal, an Ómicron reached an estimated 75% on Monday, according to a report by the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), released on Tuesday.
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 circulation of the Delta variant.
The data indicate that an Ómicron variant is dominant in Portugal (more than 50% of cases) and that, according to the 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 at INSA, stated that 24,198 sequences of the genome of the new coronavirus, prepared from those collected in more than 100 laboratories, hospitals and institutions, referring to 303 have been analyzed to date. 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 attributions 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 the week of November 22-28 its relative frequency has been decreasing, “as a result of the abrupt increase in circulation of the Omicron variant”, says the INSA.
c / Portuguese