Maria Van Kerhove, a COVID-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization announced on Friday that the spread of the Omicron variant is due to a mix of factors. She remarked that it won’t be fair to see one particular factor accountable for the transmission.
The present surge of Omicron cases has happened because of several factors including mutation of the virus. The alterations in the virus have made it capable enough to live in harsh environments and stick to human cells for a longer time than before.
According to Maria, continuous mutation is one reason while the immunity escape is another one. Immunity escape occurs when somebody gets infected with the virus for a second or third time. This can happen even if the person is vaccinated. Therefore, immunity escape is the next reason for the ongoing rise in Omicron cases.
After that, she further clarified a third reason for the Omicron spread and that is a replication of the variant in the human body, particularly in the upper respiratory tract. The new variant is not like the Delta variant nor like the other previous variants. It’s a more evolved version of coronavirus. Maria then added that the current strain is the result of the increased social mixing among people.
Averting physical distancing has led to the global Omicron surge. At present, there are more than two million Covid cases around the world. Last week, WHO recorded a total of 9.5 million cases within a week. This data is almost 71 percent more than the data seen in a week for last week.
Maria emphasized its vitality to reduce exposure to the virus. She asserted a control strategy for tackling the infection. Later on, she also highlighted the long covid symptoms that are common nowadays. There are genuine concerns along with skepticism around long covid. She says that it’s best to take all necessary precautions to curb the ongoing coronavirus spread.