The new Omicron sub-variant, XBB.1.5, which is spreading rapidly in the United States, has been detected in South Africa, but scientists in the African country officially hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic say they have no fear new "
great wave
" of contamination.
"
I don't expect a big wave of infections with hospitalizations in South Africa due to high population immunity and previous waves of Omicron variants
," the virology star said on Twitter on Friday. South African, Tulio de Oliveira, who became famous for spotting the Beta and Omicron variants.
South Africa, which detected the first case of Omicron at the end of 2021, has recorded more than four million cases of coronavirus for more than 102,500 deaths.
Some 48% of the eligible population are vaccinated.
XBB.1.5, a grandson of the Omicron family, is the “
most transmissible subvariant detected so far
,” the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week.
The subvariant was detected in the southern African country on Friday in a sample taken at the end of December, according to Mr de Oliveira, but no "
increase in the number of cases, hospitalizations or deaths
" has been seen so far .
stadium.
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XBB.1.5 is present in around thirty countries, particularly in Europe and the United States, where it is on the way to becoming dominant.
Its characteristics are not yet precisely known.
But according to the first data, a booster dose with a bivalent vaccine would notably make it possible to produce neutralizing antibodies, according to the WHO.
