57 cases of omicron have been confirmed, according to the test manufacturer they account for 15% of infections
Updates: 12/30/2021 15:20
Released: 30.12.2021, 10:47
Prague – In the Czech Republic, there are so far 57 cases of coronavirus infection with the omicron variant confirmed until last Sunday by whole-genome sequencing. In the last week until December 26, the laboratories detected discriminatory tests of another 108 suspicions of this variant, which is about 0.6 percent. It follows from weekly reports State Institute of Public Health (SZÚ). The Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) stated on Wednesday that omicron will bring another wave of the epidemic at the turn of January and February. According to the Czech manufacturer of PCR tests Diana Biotechnologies, however, they already make up about 15 percent of all samples, more in Prague. According to him, it will prevail at the end of the first week of January.
“We estimate that there were up to about 500 new cases per day in the Czech Republic on December 28. The number of omicron cases doubles every two to three days.” they wrote company representatives on twitter. They are based on about 120,000 tests from seven regions. From the results, they conclude that omicron will prevail in the Czech Republic at the end of the first week of January, and by January 12, the number of new cases of omicron will reach 10,000 and will continue to grow.
Omicron cases have been reported in most Czech and Moravian regions. One week ago, the SZÚ stated that, in addition to cases of tourists returning from Africa in particular, it also spreads in the community. According to the institute, samples with suspicion of this mutation were detected in the previous week by laboratories operating in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, Hradec Králové, Liberec, Zlín, Havlíčkův Brod, České Budějovice or Ostrava. However, samples from other regions can also be collected in them.
According to the SZÚ, more than 17,000 more detailed discriminatory PCR tests were performed in the previous week, with the coronavirus variant delta still accounting for 98 percent of cases. Almost 20,000 samples were examined by whole genome sequencing throughout the year. The results are available one to three weeks after data collection, which was further tested.
SZÚ recommended testing in more detail instead of the current ten percent of samples 30 percent. As of Sunday, December 26, it applies valid emergency measures Ministry of Health, which mandates discriminatory PCR on all samples of people who reported coronavirus symptoms at the time of collection.
“According to the preliminary information available so far regarding the rapid spread of this variant, we assume that the variant will fundamentally spread in the Czech Republic as early as the beginning of January 2022,” the ministry writes in the justification of this decision.
“We do not yet know whether this variant will cause the same, less serious or, on the contrary, more serious course and more deaths. However, the warning is that higher infectivity in previously discovered variants also led to greater mortality.” they wrote test manufacturer’s representatives on the web. According to them, alpha had 65 percent more deaths than the original Wuhan variant and delta 130 percent more than the original. However, they expect that immunity after undergoing or vaccination will always provide relatively strong protection against the serious course of the disease and the consequences of the disease will decrease over time.
The ministry in the document would also not consider that current drugs, which are supposed to ensure the serious course of the covid-19 disease, the so-called monoclonal personalities, do not have omicron variants of sufficient efficacy. “Therefore, for effective and targeted administration of available drugs, it is necessary to distinguish between different variants of the virus in people with clinical signs of the disease for whom initiation of monoclonal antibody treatment would be considered,” the document states. Experts are currently hoping for new antivirals from Pfizer or Merck.
