America’s top adviser for the pandemic, Anthony Fauci, warned on Sunday that a gloomy boreal winter was coming as the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 spreads across the world, sparking restrictions and concerns about hospital capacity.
“One thing that is very clear … is its extraordinary ability to spread,” Fauci told NBC News. “It just … spreads, wreaking havoc around the world.”
Since its first appearance in South Africa in November, the Omicron variant It has been identified in dozens of countries, forcing several to reimpose travel restrictions and other measures.
Although it does not appear to be more severe than the Delta variant – which is still the dominant strain -, Omicron It appears to have worrying resistance to vaccines and increased transmissibility, according to preliminary data.
Fauci also warned of being over-optimistic about the severity of Omicron, by noting that the situation in South Africa, where the rate of hospitalizations per case appears to be lower than with the Delta variant, it could be due to underlying immunities from previous and widespread infections.
“No matter how you look at it,” he said, “when you have so many, so many infections, even if it seems less serious (than delta),” it could cause “our hospitals to be under a lot of pressure in the coming weeks,” particularly in areas of the country. with low levels of infection, he added.
Fauci urged Americans who are not yet vaccinated to inject themselves, and those vaccinated to seek a booster dose. About 70 percent of the nation’s population has received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which means that 50 million eligible people remain unimmunized.
“With Ómicron … we are going to live some tough weeks, or months, as we move into winter,” Fauci said.
U.S It is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with more than 800,000 Covid-19 deaths identified as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx