Omicron risk remains high; variant surpasses Delta in UK, US: 7 things WHO says

The world Health Organization has categorised the pitfalls related to the Omicron variant as veritably high in its Covid-19 daily epidemiological update released on Wednesday. South Africa, the country which first detected the variant on November 24, is seeing a decline in the number of Omicron cases, the WHO report said, conceivably indicating that the swell is over for the time being. rnHere are 7 new observations made by the WHO in its weekly report:rn1. The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high.rn2. Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron variant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of 2-3 daysrn3. Omicron cases are increasing rapidly and the variant has become the dominant strain in the United Kingdom and the United States.rn4. A decline in the incidence of cases has now been observed in South Africa.rn5. The rapid growth rate is likely to be a combination of both immune-evasion and intrinsic increased transmissibility of the Omicron variantrn6. Early data from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Denmark suggests there is a reduced risk of hospitalisation for the Omicron compared to the Delta variant. rnThe overall number of covid 19 cases increased by 11 in the week between December 20 and 26 as compared to the former week, with the US region reporting the largest increase (39), followed by the African region (7). The South-East Asia region continued to report a drop in the new cases, the WHO observed. Though Omicron is leading to smaller hospitalisation, Covid-19 hospitalisations in New Tork state are accelerating at a rate that hasn't been seen since the early days of the epidemic, reports said. On Tuesday the state said hospitalizations rose by 647 to, marking the largest diurnal increase since early April 2020, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The total number of New Yorkers rehabilitated with the contagion remains far below last time’s peak of nearly.