For example, she said, by Tuesday afternoon, omicron was already the most common variant in London. “The data out of the UK are quite alarming at this point,” and foreshadow what’s to come in the United States, said Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
on Wednesday recorded the highest number of confirmed new COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began, and England’s chief medical officer warned that the situation is likely to get worse as omicron drives a new wave of illness during the holidays. In Britain, where omicron cases are doubling every two to three days, the variant is expected to soon replace delta as the dominant strain in the country. How quickly the number of cases doubles, known as “doubling time,” can give a preview of what the disease burden could be in a few weeks.ĬDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that early data suggests omicron is more transmissible than delta, with a doubling time of about two days. Scientists around the world are racing to understand omicron, which has a large number of worrisome mutations in important regions of its genetic structure that could affect how it spreads from person to person. Outside the U.S., the president of the European Union said omicron will become the dominant variant in a month and declared that “once again, this Christmas will be overshadowed by the pandemic.” Both t he NBA and NHL have had to postpone games, and the NFL had its worst two-day outbreak since the start of the pandemic, with dozens of players infected.
Universities are abruptly closing classrooms during finals week with infections multiplying at a fast rate. The five states with the highest two-week rolling average of cases per 100,000 people are New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota and Vermont. Meanwhile, delta is surging in many places, with hot spots in New England and the upper Midwest. In the United States, 36 states have detected the variant. Globally, more than 75 countries have reported confirmed cases of omicron. Percentages vary by region, with the highest - 13% - in the New York/New Jersey area.īut Harvard experts said these are likely underestimates because omicron is moving so fast that surveillance attempts can’t keep up. Staff are fatigued,” leaving limited capacity for a potential crush of COVID-19 cases “from an omicron wave superimposed on a delta surge.”Ĭhina quarantines college students under strict COVID policyīased on specimens collected last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said omicron accounted for about 3% of genetically-sequenced coronaviruses nationally. “That’s alarming, because our hospitals are already filling up. Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School. And on top of that, we’re going to add an omicron surge,” said Dr. “Our delta surge is ongoing and, in fact, accelerating. But even if omicron proves milder on the whole than delta, it may disarm some of the lifesaving tools available and put immune-compromised and elderly people at particular risk as it begins a rapid assault on the United States. The White House on Wednesday insisted there was no need for a lockdown because vaccines are widely available and appear to offer protection against the worst consequences of the virus. The new omicron coronavirus mutant speeding around the world may bring another wave of chaos, threatening to further stretch hospital workers already struggling with a surge of delta cases and upend holiday plans for the second year in a row.
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