The Omicron
variant, the newest addition to coronavirus variant, has hit the pandemic-weary
world hard. Countries across the globe are racing to shut borders as cases of
the Omicron variant get reported from one place and another. South Africa, the
country where the variant was first detected, is already seeing most of its infections
from this variant.

At this time,
scientists are wondering what the actual impact of the new variant is going to
be and how an already-strained health infrastructure will deal with a potential
wave. The World Health Organization (WHO) has flagged the omicron variant as
high-risk identifying it as a “variant of concern”.

The UN-backed
health agency said Monday that the omicron variant is likely to spread across
the world and called upon countries to put mitigation plans in place. “Omicron
has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning of
the potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic,” the WHO said in a
statement.

“The global risk
related to the new variant of concern omicron is assessed as very high,” the
WHO said adding that there is still more research needed to understand whether
the virus may elude vaccine protections.

Experts around the
world have varying views with regard to the potential for damage that the
variant carries. However, several disease experts who spoke to Reuters said that
there are strong reasons to believe that the variant will render existing
vaccines less effective.

The imminent
threat from omicron is that it is a highly-mutative strain. While some of its
mutations are common with the Beta and Gamma variants. But omicron has 26
unique mutations, many of them in regions targeted by vaccine antibodies.  

According to John
Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Weill Cornell Medical
College in New York, the question really is how transmissible is omicron
relative to Delta. But scientists think this may be one of the last questions
to be answered.

Meanwhile,
countries have started closing down again. The European Union has banned direct
flights from several African nations even in the face of WHO’s advice that
banning flights is not the best way and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s
criticism.