Covid: Rise in UK infections driven by BA.2 Omicron variant
One in 20 people infected, with record high rates in elderly people due a spring Covid booster vaccine. Source link
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More Destructive Variant of HIV Spotted in the Netherlands
By Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, Feb. 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — If the pandemic taught the world nothing else, it’s that viruses can mutate, potentially giving rise to new and more harmful variants. Now, new research reveals that’s exactly what has happened with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Called VB (for virulent subtype … Read more
Covid: First UK death recorded with Omicron variant
People should set aside the idea Omicron is a milder variant and get their booster jab, the PM says. Source link
Covid: Vaccines should work against Omicron variant, WHO says
“We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all the variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalisation, and there’s no reason to expect that it wouldn’t be so” for Omicron, Dr Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director, told AFP news agency. Source link
First Omicron Variant Case Identified in U.S.
Dec. 1, 2021 — The first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the United States was confirmed by officials today in an individual in California who had recently traveled to South Africa. He or she was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and experienced only “mild symptoms that are improving,” officials with the CDC said. … Read more
Covid: Omicron variant in Netherlands earlier than thought
The new Covid-19 variant is found in Dutch samples taken before it was reported by South Africa. Source link
What We Know – and Don’t — About the Omicron COVID Variant
Nov. 29, 2021 — Health experts across the globe are raising concerns about the newly discovered COVID-19 variant, Omicron, which was first identified in South Africa. The country’s minister of health announced last week that the variant had already spread in different areas of the country. The next day, the World Health Organization designated Omicron … Read more
Biden: New COVID Variant ‘Cause for Concern,’ Not Panic
Nov. 29, 2021 — President Joe Biden said Monday that available vaccines are expected to provide some protection against the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, and federal health officials are working to gather more information on its potency before the first cases are detected in the United States. He was accompanied by top infectious disease expert … Read more
Covid-19 Omicron variant case linked to Brentwood primary school
Dr Mike Gogarty, the county council’s director of public health, said: “The aim is to understand what, if any, spread of the new variant within the local community may have occurred and limit the opportunity for any further spread. Robust contact tracing has taken place following identification of the single case. Source link
Omicron variant ‘not all doom and gloom’
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam says that it is ”not all doom and gloom” surrounding Omicron variant. Source link