Delta Could Be Knocked Out by Omicron, Say SA Scientists in New Study
- In a recent study, South African scientists discovered a connection between the Delta and Omicron variants
- The results suggest that vaccinated people who have Omicron again extra immunity against Delta
- Omicron has proven to be a milder variant of Covid-19 than Delta and so far has resulted in few hospitalisations
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JOHANNESBURG - South African scientists recently conducted a study in an effort to find out more about the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Their study produced results that suggest that the new variant may supplement neutralising immunity against its predecessor, the Delta variant.
According to the study, vaccinated people who had been infected with Omicron presented increased immunity against Delta, Reuters reports.
Source: Getty Images
Details of the study
According to SABC News, the study's participants were 33 unvaccinated and vaccinated people in South Africa who had Omicron. The increased immunity occurred 14 days after contracting Omicron and in some cases neutralised Delta completely.
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Scientists who worked on the study agreed that the neutralising effect of Omicron can cause fewer people to be re-infected with the Delta variant.
The scientists said that this phenomenon could eradicate Delta. Omicron has proven to be a milder variant of Covid-19 than Delta and so far has resulted in few hospitalisations.
Responses to the South African Omicron study
@owenanoc1 asked:
"I wonder where the high population immunity is coming from given SA has only fully vaccinated 26,6% of the population"
@jasil_joseph believes:
"This virus is really problematic."
@samwins87 said:
"That’s a good thing since Omicron doesn’t cause severe symptoms, hospitalizations or death."
@DrEliDavid shared:
"Omicron may be the respiratory virus with the lowest infection fatality rate in history."
Vaccines might be the key to avoiding overfull hospitals
In other Omicron-related news, Briefly News recently reported that the least vaccinated country in the world is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Their capital, Kinshasa, has a Covid-19 treatment centre.
Currently only one of the 38 beds is vacant.In order to facilitate overflow, tents have been erected behind the treatment centre. The patients who require ventilators are attached to old oxygen tanks.
The DRC is not prepared for the fourth wave of Covid-19, as their low vaccination figures mean that the population are more susceptible to severe, and even fatal, cases of the coronavirus.
Source: Briefly News
