RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first detected the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, says that infected patients so far show “extremely mild symptoms” – but more time is needed to assess the effect on vulnerable people. She says the first case was identified around November 18.
“It all started with a patient with mild symptoms. He said he had been extremely tired for the past two days and had body aches and a slight headache. Not even a sore throat, more like a scratchy throat. No cough, no loss of smell or taste,” Dr. Coetzee said.
“Because it was very unusual for this particular patient to have these kinds of symptoms, I decided to test him. We ran a quick test, and it was positive,” the doctor said, who then tested the patient’s entire family, all of whom tested positive for the coronavirus and had mild symptoms.
Coetzee says that on the same day, other patients came in for care with the same symptoms, also testing positive. “The patients were complaining mainly of body pain and fatigue, extreme fatigue in young patients, not in older people. So these are not patients who go straight to the hospital and are admitted,” Coetzee said.
She then alerted the South African health authorities, as she felt that what she was seeing was inconsistent with the Delta variant, first detected in India and becoming prevalent worldwide, including in South Africa.
The following week, after genetic sequencing of the samples, it became clear that it was a new variant, the B.1.1.529, later named Omicron by the World Health Organization.
“Clinically, what we see in South Africa – and I’m in the epicenter, providing care – are extremely mild cases. No one has needed hospitalization,” the doctor noted. “I’ve talked to colleagues and they report the same thing.”
“PANIC IS UNNECESSARY, FOR NOW”
Asked if countries where the variant has been identified are panicking unnecessarily, Coetzee says that at this point, she believes so. “Cases are probably already circulating unnoticed in those countries. So at this point, I would say that panic is definitely unnecessary. In two weeks, maybe our assessment will change.”
Cases of infection with the Omicron variant have now been confirmed in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Australia, the Czech Republic, Israel, Belgium, Hong Kong, Botswana, as well as South Africa.
Israel has decided to close its borders to all foreigners and Morocco has suspended all flights to the country for the next 2 weeks.
Countries such as Brazil, Canada, the United States, Iran, and European nations have imposed restrictions on travelers from many countries in the southern part of the African continent.
According to Dr. Coetzee, cases of the Omicron variant may be going unnoticed in countries. “Countries are handling many Delta cases. We had a break, about 8 to 10 weeks since our last wave of infections and the coming of this new variant. So it was easy for us to see that there was something different,” she says.
“Doctors who are focused on the Delta may let that go unnoticed, because it’s easy for that to happen. If it hadn’t been that we had no Covid-19 cases for weeks, we wouldn’t have noticed it either.”
The Omicron variant has drawn the attention of health authorities for having a wide variety of mutations, which make it quite different from the original coronavirus. There are 50 genetic changes, 32 of them in the spike protein, used by the virus to bind to the human cell and start the infection, and also used as a target in vaccines such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Janssen.
As a result, experts fear that the current vaccines may be less effective against the Omicron, but this has not yet been proven. In addition, vaccine manufacturers have advised that they can quickly readjust their vaccines to the new variant, if necessary.