As the days go by, new details about omicron emerge that allow us to understand its characteristics and how it spreads.
Thus, two new studies confirmed that this variant is indeed more transmissible than delta, but causes a less serious disease that avoids ending up in a hospital.
Imperial College London estimated that
the chances of having to go to a hospital are reduced by 20%
and that the options of ending up in one or more nights are reduced by 30%.
His research looked at all PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases in England in the first half of December in which the variant could be identified: 56,000 cases of omicron and 269,000 of delta.
A vaccination center in Chester, Pennsylvania, is operating at full capacity on December 15, 2021.Matt Rourke / AP
At the same time, scientists from the University of Edinburgh together with other experts pointed out that the risk of hospitalization is two-thirds lower with omicron than with delta.
However, their study underscores that the nearly 24,000 omicron cases detected in Scotland were primarily in adults between the ages of 20 and 39.
Younger people are much less likely to develop severe cases of COVID-19.
Another Christmas pending the contagions
The high transmission capacity that omicron has has been demonstrated by the explosion of cases throughout the country, complicating for the second year in a row the gatherings of family and friends to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve.
The state of New York, which became the epicenter of the pandemic during the spring of 2020, registered on Wednesday its record since the health crisis broke with 28,625 positive cases.
[Symptoms of omicron: what is known about the infection causing the new variant]
This situation is shared with other parts of the world such as Europe, where the rapid spread of the virus has forced the adoption of new restrictive measures: use of a mask in outdoor spaces, indoor capacity limitation, cancellation of nightlife.
The Netherlands announced a month-long lockdown.
China, which maintains a "zero tolerance" policy to control the spread of the virus, also confined the city of Xi'an, where 13 million people live.
South Africa, which detected the omicron variant at the end of November, reported instead a decrease in cases in the last hours, which suggests that the country has exceeded the peak of this wave.
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The United States is also experiencing a saturation of hospitals by the incessant flow of infected patients.
According to data from our sister network NBC News,
hospitalizations nationwide had risen 39% from November 1 to Tuesday
, while the number of infected people rebounded 30% in the past two weeks.
Most of the hospitalized and deceased are patients who had not been vaccinated.
In fact, while vaccines have been shown to be effective and significantly reduce the chances of dying or ending up as a result of the virus, there are still about 90 million people who have not taken any doses, according to data from the Centers for Control and Prevention Disease (CDC).
[COVID-19 tests in short supply amid spike in infections and year-end travel]
In addition, only 30% have received the booster dose despite the fact that the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna have confirmed that the so-called
booster
considerably increases the level of antibodies to omicron.
"If they have been vaccinated, if they have given the booster dose, they can feel confident,"
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's main adviser against the pandemic, told Noticias Telemundo.
However,
"nothing is 100% certain at this time," he
recalled.
What else can be done?
Although the federal strategy is to vaccinate the entire population, regulatory authorities gave a boost to treatments to combat the effects of COVID-19 with
the approval for emergency use of the pills from Pfizer and Merck
, a key move to protect all those who are not immunized.
Both pills reduce the chances that an infected person will die or be admitted.
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However, experts and some voices such as California Governor Gavin Newsom point out that other precautions must be taken beyond immunization.
Coronavirus vaccines, in fact, act as a shield against the disease, but they are not an impenetrable barrier.
Consequently, it is essential to maintain general rules such as hand hygiene, social distance, undergo diagnostic tests in case of suffering symptoms or having been in contact with a positive.
As part of the fight to contain COVID-19, many companies have returned to telecommuting and universities such as UCLA, Columbia, Duke and Yale plan to teach their classes
online
.