COVID Omicron Variant Comes to America
Posted on 11/29/2021
The first two cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant have been detected in North America, according to the Canadian government. The World Health Organization has named Omicron a “variant of concern.” The two individuals in Canada who tested positive had recently traveled from Nigeria, per the statement from Ottawa Public Health. Importantly, the Omicron variant is not genetically
descended from the Delta variant.
“As the monitoring continues, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada and other countries,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement.
Earlier, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the replacement governor of Andrew Cuomo, declared a state of emergency to prepare for the Omicron variant first identified in South Africa.
“We continue to see warning signs of spikes in COVID this winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it’s coming,” NY Governor Hochul said in a tweet.
In the Greek alphabet, Omicron comes next to Nu and Xi. According to experts, Nu has been avoided as this alphabet is confusing with the English word new. And Xi has been avoided so that the name is not misconstrued as a reference to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The Omicron variant has 32 mutations of the spike protein alone, compared to the Delta variant which had only 9.
Mild Impact in South Africa So Far
Barry Schoub is the Chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines. He told Sky News on Sunday that while South Africa, which first identified the new variant, currently has 3,220 people with the coronavirus infection overall, “The cases that have occurred so far have all been mild cases, mild-to-moderate cases, and that’s a good sign.”