According to a mathematical model built by an international team of scientists, the omicron strain of COVID-19 spreads twice as fast as the delta variant. This was reported by the news portal News24 with reference to an expert group led by Carl Pearson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London.
The results obtained confirmed the early hypothesis of faster transmission of the virus from person to person. However, it is still unclear what exactly the rate of spread is connected with: with the increased infectivity of a new strain of coronavirus or with its ability to evade an immune response.
Scientists urged colleagues around the world to use the information received to better prepare for the increase in the number of infections with coronavirus infection.
Earlier in Britain, a geneticist from University College London, Francois Ballou, said that about a thousand people are infected with the omicron strain in the UK every day, which is significantly higher than statistics. The number of cases doubles every three to four days and accounts for about one percent of all infections per day. The scientist noted that this is not an exact figure, however, he believes that it is “not far from the truth.”
On November 11 in South Africa, a strain was identified under the code B.1.1.529, which was named the Greek letter omicron. The country's health minister said that the new version is easily tolerated by vaccinated patients, however, according to some reports, it can bypass the immunity of those who have recovered from other strains. The new strain has been recorded in a number of countries in Africa, Australia, Brazil, India, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and several European countries. Earlier it became known that the omicron-strain was also identified in two Russians who arrived from South Africa.
