Guyanese are being encouraged to take all precautions against the Covid-19 virus especially now that health systems around the world are facing a new challenge with the Omicron variant.
Speaking on the daily Covid-19 update, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent announcement that the variant is already present in more than 67 countries, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches here.
“…because people are travelling, people are moving around and therefore we have to be attentive. For most countries, it’s going to be difficult to prevent Omicron from coming to your country, it’s just a matter of when.”
The Health Minister noted that with the high rate of transmission, scientists predict that the Omicron variant will be the dominant variant worldwide.
“Therefore, we have to start preparing, we have to start taking the precautions. Christmas is upon us and I know a lot of people want to go shopping and socialising and unfortunately, if they do that and they are exposed to people with whether it’s Delta or Omicron or whatever variant there is circulating, they are going to spread it and when people socialise especially if they are drinking, they obviously are not wearing masks they will be in close proximity to each other and these are ideal conditions for spread,” Dr Anthony said.
The Minister noted that persons should not be complacent as there is still more to know about the variant, and trends are still emerging.
“What the scientists are telling us, this particular variant has about 50 mutations and about 32 of those mutations are located on the spike protein and most vaccines have used the spike protein as the antigen, for the human body to react to it and to be able to produce antibodies. So, a variation with so many mutations, with about 32 mutations can, of course, create problems in the human body identifying, or the antibodies that you would have developed, to identify this new variant,” he noted.
Thus far, the Omicron variant has been observed, by scientists, to be more transmissible, with cases doubling every two to three days, so the scientists have estimated that there is a three-fold higher transmission than the Delta variant.
Another characteristic of the Omicron variant is that even with two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine persons can still be affected.
“Persons who would have had two doses of vaccine, they have shown a reduced efficacy in fighting the omicron variant, so what is being recommended in many countries across the world, those countries who would have completed their two-dose vaccination, is for those persons to come and get a booster dose, because with the booster dose, your antibody levels go up and you are more prepared to fight this variant,” Dr Anthony said.
Dr Anthony noted too, that there is also the possibility of reinfection for persons who already had the disease and the possibility is three to eight times more than the delta variant.
In terms of the severity of the disease, Dr. Anthony noted, that vaccinated persons mostly experience milder forms of the disease.
“Yesterday the UK reported that one person died from the Omicron variant, but we haven’t seen a lot of deaths as yet, but again, remember that this variant only became known to the world around the 24th of November, so we’ll see more people getting sick with it and we’ll probably see hospitalisation but at this point in time, we haven’t seen many persons who would have had the severe disease and not many deaths as yet, so hopefully it stays that way.”
The Minister is adamant that booster doses work and the Ministry will need to increase vaccination numbers as there are still many persons unvaccinated or partially vaccinated in Guyana.
He reiterated that persons 18 years and older are eligible for the booster shots locally.
“We have some work to do in encouraging those who are unvaccinated to get vaccinated, and those who are partially vaccinated to become fully vaccinated, and we want to move these numbers because a lot of the scientists would have predicted with the Delta variant circulating, that we need to move the numbers up between somewhere 80 to 85 per cent second dose coverage, so that we can contain the virus. We have a different challenge now that omicron is emerging, and with that omicron is more transmissible, so we’ll require a higher number if we are going to meet herd immunity,” Dr. Anthony said.
The good news is that persons can protect themselves with existing protocols. He noted that it is preferred that medical grade masks are worn.
“These masks they’re specially designed, in the case of an N95 they have five layers, in the case of a surgical or a procedural mask they have like three layers, so it helps to filter out viral particles,” he said.
So far, no cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in Guyana. [Extracted and Modified from DPI]
