Editor’s Note: Due to popular public demand, The Bohol Tribune is reprinting the column of Dr. Bryan Cepedoza on the Omicron variant.
What We Ought to Know about the Omicron Variant
The Omicron variant has become the concern of health experts as the world continues to struggle in its containment of the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus disease (Covid).
The Omicron variant can be a game changer because of its ability to spread the disease with the carrier of the virus not knowing he or she is infected, in the first place.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) says that anyone infected with the Omicron variant can spread the virus even if he/she is asymptomatic or even if he/she is fully vaccinated.
Another bad news is that the immunity we acquired through vaccination and/or natural infection is reduced against Omicron variant which makes a person more susceptible to the virus.
However, immunity from vaccination remains effective in preventing severe and critical forms of the disease caused by Omicron variant. This means that the chance of death from Covid among vaccinated persons remains low.
Preliminary data suggest that Omicron variant is more infectious and spreads faster compared to the Delta variant.
Fortunately, the Omicron variant causes less severe disease symptoms compared to the Delta variant. It is considered that Delta is the deadliest Covid variant.
Even if the risk of getting severe disease with Omicron variant is low, there is a possibility that the number of admissions due to Covid will increase. The reason for increase in hospitalization is the fact that the Omicron variant is more transmissible compared to other variants. This would also mean that the number of hospitalized Omicron variant patients will be significantly more than the number of hospitalized patients infected by older strains of the virus.
As a result, Omicron variant will result to the following: the need to use more resources for quarantine, more outpatient care for mild and moderate cases of the disease, emergency room congestion. It may also overrun our fragile health care system.
Observers also say that Omicron variant may be the beginning of the end of this pandemic.
But I say, Omicron variant is something that we should not downplay since it is the most infectious variant so far. Being highly infectious, it can easily transfer from one person to another. The more it infects people, the higher the chances are that it will mutate and become a more lethal variant.
Still, vaccination is the only way out from this pandemic.
I want to remind everyone that another surge is inevitable if we continue to neglect minimum health protocol.
Just a heads up: tocilizumab the wonder drug for Covid is still expensive. Even if you can afford it, just pray that you won’t be needing one because to cilizumab is not readily available here.