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The percentage of Omicron cases is increasing sharply in the UK.
Photo: Alberto Pezzali / dpa
In more than 50 countries around the world, people have already been proven to be infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The number of confirmed cases is particularly high in three countries: 228 Omicron infections were confirmed in South Africa, plus tens of thousands of suspected cases.
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In Denmark, the authorities registered 261 cases - and the number is growing rapidly.
According to the Danish State Health Institute, 73 cases were detected by whole genome sequencing, 188 infections were confirmed with a variant PCR test.
In Great Britain, too, more and more infections with the new variant are being registered.
There are currently 336 confirmed cases.
The pace at which the number of cases is increasing is particularly worrying: the number of Omikron cases almost doubled from Friday to Sunday alone.
According to the British Minister of Health Sajid Javid, none of those affected have yet to be treated in hospital.
Measured against the total number of new infections, however, the Omikron proportion is still low: around 50,000 positive corona tests were registered in Great Britain on Monday.
There are signals that indicate repression
How likely is it that Omikron will displace the previously dominant delta variant?
Some scientists suspect: more likely.
It is still too early to make reliable statements at the current time.
But: "More and more data are coming in that suggest that Omikron could displace Delta in many, if not all, locations." This is what researcher Jacob Lemieux, for example, who is observing the spread of the variants at Harvard Medical School, says .
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In data from the UK, where a lot of genome sequencing is done, "we see a signal that indicates an exponential increase in omicrons versus delta," the researcher said.
Much is not yet known about Omikron.
It is unclear, for example, whether the variant leads to milder disease courses or to what extent it could evade immunity from previous Covid 19 diseases or vaccines.
The developments in the current number of infections indicate that Omikron could be very contagious.
In South Africa - where Omikron does not necessarily have to have originated, but where it was first discovered - the number of cases rose from less than 200 sick people per day at the beginning of November to more than 16,000 new infections every day at the beginning of December.
More than 90 percent of the new cases could be due to Omikron.
The Delta case numbers were low in South Africa
"The virus is spreading extremely quickly," said Willem Hanekom, director of the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa.
"If you look at the gradient of this wave that we are currently experiencing, it is much steeper than the first three waves in South Africa." This suggests that the variant is possibly very transferrable.
First data also showed that the reinfection rates are higher than with previous variants.
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However, says Hanekom, the number of Delta cases in South Africa was very low when Omikron appeared.
Therefore, it cannot be determined with certainty whether the new variant has displaced Delta.
The assessment of the scientist Jeffrey Barrett, who heads the Covid Genome Initiative at the British Wellcome Sanger Institute, is clearer.
Barrett told UK radio broadcaster BBC: “I think we can now say that the variant is spreading faster in the UK than the Delta variant and that was not clear until very recently.
I'm pretty sure she'll likely become dominant within weeks. "
vki / dpa / AP