Neighbouring Norway, which has about the same population, is now projecting more than 100,000 cases a day in a matter of weeks, unless people drastically reduce social contacts. If Omicron spreads rapidly and infects huge swathes of the population at once, it could still affect enough people to overwhelm health care systems, some of which are already struggling to manage a surge of Delta cases.ĭespite very high vaccination rates, Denmark with 5 million people is now seeing more than 6,000 cases a day, roughly twice the number seen during the highest previous peak. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.
The other shots - including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia - do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows.
But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world. This week, Denmark reported that three-quarters of its Omicron cases occurred in people who had received two vaccine doses.Ī growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defence against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant, according to a New York Times report ( )Īll vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. Early data from the United States suggest that around 120,000 new Covid cases are being reported every day, a 40 percent increase from two weeks ago.īreakthrough infections are common.
In Denmark, Omicron cases are doubling roughly every two days. In Britain, where nearly 70% of the population is fully vaccinated, officials have estimated that 200,000 people are becoming infected every day. Less than a month after it was identified, Omicron has spread twice as fast in South Africa as the highly infectious Delta variant. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan added it would be “unwise” to conclude from early evidence that Omicron was a milder variant that previous ones. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading faster than the Delta variant and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from the COVID-19 disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. Now at the doorstep of 2022 its almost as if the vaccines didn’t exist thanks to COVID-19’s new avatar, the ancient “Greek variant” Omicron, sidestepping the jab and ignoring past bouts with the virus. The vaccines arrived at the threshold of 2021, slowing down the pace and impact of the disease considerably. COVID-19 devastated the world back in 2020 when vaccines were a faint glimmer at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel. As we stagger towards 2022, the words of that old Carpenters’ song come back suddenly: “Its yesterday once more!” Unlike that song, this is a nightmare, not nostalgia.