WHO: Omicron's Mutated Strain Detected in 5 African Countries

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the new mutation from the recent world emerged COVID-19 variant, Omicron, has been detected in 57 countries, including five African countries: Botswana, Malawi, Senegal, Kenya, and South Africa, media agencies reported on Thursday.

Known as Stealth Omicron, the variant is more infectious than the spread early versions of the strain.

The WHO Technical Lead for Coronavirus Pandemic Maria Van Kerkhove said: “No indication that there is a change in severity” with the BA.2 subvariant.

The BA.2 subvariant has been found in some European countries such as Denmark where the subvariant is responsible for almost 80% of the newly recorded infections and the UK, alongside some African countries such as South Africa.

The US also reported the presence of the new subvariant in at least 29 states, including Hawaii, Arizona, California, and Massachusetts.

WHO warned all countries of treating Omicron COVID-19 like flu due to the similarities between Omicron’s symptoms and flu ones.

WHO’s Europe Director Hans Kluge asserted that there is a “huge amount of uncertainty” of Omicron’s emergence rates.

In the same context, Kluge added that Omicron could infect more than half of the Europeans in less than two months.

Europe recorded more than seven million new infections since the beginning of 2022, and by tracking this rate, experts found out that the new mutation could hit the half of the EU bloc’s residents in less than two months.

“At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks,” Klug cited.

It is worthy to mention that Johns Hopkins University announced on Sunday that more than 305 million people were infected with Coronavirus worldwide.

The new Omicron version, which was initially discovered in South Africa, has heightened global anxieties because it is thought to be more deadly than the delta variant in November.

WHO designated it as a ‘variant of concern’ on Friday.

The new South African strain has been designated as a source of concern by the WHO because it has a high number of mutations (32). This potentially makes it more transmissible and deadly.

WHO has given it the name “Omicron,” which is the Greek alphabet’s 15th letter.

Following news of the new variant, the US, the EU, Canada, Israel, Australia, and other countries have imposed travel restrictions on many southern African countries due to health concerns.

 Currently, the variant existed in more than 110 countries around the world.