The World Health Organization classified \\<\/b>
\nNearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is going full speed ahead to contain the latest variant, first identified in southern Africa but popping up around the globe. The World Health Organization n amed the new version of the virus \u201comicron\u201d and classified it as a highly transmissible variant of concern, though its actual risks are not yet understood. Early evidence suggests that it poses an increased risk that people who have already had COVID-19 could catch it again, the WHO said. It could take weeks to know whether current vaccines remain effective against it. Scientists know that omicron is genetically distinct from previous variants, including the beta and delta variants, but they do not know whether these genetic changes actually make it any more transmissible or dangerous. So far, there is no indication the variant causes more severe disease. Experts are hopeful that vaccines will be at least somewhat effective at preventing serious illness and death \u2014 and continue to encourage people to get inoculated. Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London said it was \u201cextremely unlikely\u201d that current vaccines wouldn\u2019t work, noting they are effective against numerous other variants. More on the omicron variant: The omicron variant has sparked new travel restrictions. Are more COVID rules ahead? But as the virus continue to spread, countries across the globe are imposing restrictions or bans on travelers from several countries and re-imposing measures such as mask mandates that some hoped were a thing of the past. Scientists are concerned because the new variant appears to have a high number of mutations \u2014 about 30 \u2014 in the coronavirus\u2019 spike protein, which could affect how easily it spreads among people. Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, said the data so far suggest the new variant has mutations \u201cconsistent with enhanced transmissibility,\u201d but said that \u201cthe significance of many of the mutations is still not known.\u201d COVID and Ohio: Some will move on from COVID, but those most impacted may never be able to forget Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, described omicron as \u201cthe most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen,\u201d including potentially worrying changes never before seen within the same virus. In South Africa, Gauteng province \u2014 home to Pretoria and the country’s largest city of Johannesburg \u2014 is the center of the new surge. So far, cases there appear to be mild, according to doctors, and hospital admissions have not spiked. But experts warn the early round of infections has been among the young and the situation may become more serious if the new surge affects older, unvaccinated South Africans. In all,41% of those age 18 and over are vaccinated \u2014 but young people have been particularly slow to step forward. Some experts think expanded measures will be needed to curb the spread of the virus. \u201cI do think that the decision that South Africa is going to have to make is probably around mandatory vaccination,\u201d said Mosa Moshabela, professor of public health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. A new surge \u2014 and even a new variant \u2014 was long anticipated, but the speed with which omicron hit came as a \u201cshock\u201d to South Africa\u2019s health experts. While numbers of confirmed cases are still relatively low, they have been increasing at a high rate. The new spike started after some student parties in Pretoria. Numbers quickly jumped from a few hundred cases a day to thousands. South Africa announced 3,220 new cases Saturday, of which 82% are in Gauteng, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. That’s still well below the peak of the last wave, when more than 25,000 were confirmed in a day. As many as 90% of the new cases in Gauteng province are caused by omicron, Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, said in a tweet, citing the results of diagnostic tests. Moshabela said, \u201cWe did expect that we may see a new or a different variant gaining momentum in the fourth wave…. We did not really expect to see a variant with the kind of multiplicity of mutations. And that is capable of becoming highly transmissible and escape or evade immunity at the same time. This was really the shock that we had.\u201d Even though some of the genetic changes in omicron appear worrying, it\u2019s still unclear whether they will pose a public health threat. Some previous variants, like the beta variant, initially alarmed scientists but didn\u2019t end up spreading very far. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if this new variant could get a toehold in regions where delta is,\u201d Peacock said. \u201cThe jury is out on how well this variant will do where there are other variants circulating.\u201d To date, delta is by far the most predominant form of COVID-19, accounting for more than 99% of sequences submitted to the world\u2019s biggest public database. The latest COVID-19 cases in Ohio: State reports 4,245 new COVID-19 cases Sunday The coronavirus mutates as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying genetic changes, often just die out. Scientists monitor COVID-19 sequences for mutations that could make the disease more transmissible or deadly, but they cannot determine that simply by looking at the virus. Peacock said the variant \u201cmay have evolved in someone who was infected but could then not clear the virus, giving the virus the chance to genetically evolve,\u201d in a scenario similar to how experts think the alpha variant \u2014 which was first identified in England \u2014 also emerged, by mutating in an immune-compromised person.<\/p>\n