Danish professor says battle against COVID's Omicron variant is 'probably already lost'

With the detection of the new COVID virus in South Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was quick to announce that 'Omicron' is a matter of grave concern. Though researchers across the globe have been working 24/7 to unearth all the possibilities to avoid any untoward situation, a Danish Professor said the battle against the Omicron variant is probably lost. While speaking to news agency Sputnik, director of Denmark's National Board of Health, Søren Brostrøm said that the new COVID variant may prove as contagious as the measles.

While, Jakob Stoustrup, a professor of applied mathematics at Aalborg University, who is also a member of the reference group set up to advise the government on the COVID pandemic said that the new variant may act as similar to the earlier variants, especially, the delta variant. 

"We can assumably anticipate a similar consequence for Omicron, as we saw for Delta, where it swiftly surpassed the previous variant. There are signs that the curve this time will also be very steep," Sputnik quoted Stoustrup as saying to TV2.

According to him, an expert group had earlier made predictions about the delta variant that ultimately turned right. He told the group had anticipated that the delta variant would fade away within three months. He admitted this was the rarest of the rare incident when the anticipation about the infectious variant totally turned right. However, he noted that the nature of the Omicron variant could not be known precisely until the next two weeks. Also, Stoustrup said that the climatic condition, and population size, behaviour and other major circumstances are different from the South African nations, resulting in variation in the opinion shared by the scientists. 

"Overall, the battle against Omicron is probably already lost, because there are so many cases now. We will live with Omicron, but we can avoid it becoming a health disaster," Sputnik quoted Stoustrup. 

Does Omicron infect more than Delta?

On the first day, the global health agency, WHO denied any 'lethal' behaviour of the virus but added the new variant is five to six times infectious than earlier variants, especially the delta variant. Citing the first four days of data, it said before the detection of the new variant, the cases in South Africa was around 200 to 210, however, the cases were up by 200%. Within four days of detection, the cases went from 200 to 2,400. Besides, the WHO scientists also noted that the gene sequencing of the new COVID variant exhibited that it had more mutations than the earlier variants. In Omicron, the scientists found 43 aa mutations in the spike proteins whereas, in the delta variant, it varies from 18 to 10. According to WHO, around 90% of the current Coronavirus cases is due to the delta variant.

(IMAGE: PTI/SHUTTERSTOCK)