Patient zero's wife and two children also tested positive for the Omicron variant. This was announced by the Campania Region at the end of the sequencing relating to the Campania patient from southern Africa and the direct contacts he had on his return to Italy.
Rapid sequencing was possible thanks to NGS technology tools, which the Cotugno hospital laboratory is equipped with, which allow the processing and evaluation of the viral genome in its entirety within 24 hours.
All 4 patients have no relevant symptoms, confirming the action produced by the vaccine.
In short, the alert is there, but we must not be alarmed. While it is true that WHO warned that the mutation could have "serious consequences" and that "the probability of further spread globally is high", WHO itself notes that "to date no deaths have been reported" relating to the mutation.
"We called it worrying because all the teams around the world get the most information on this variant," Sylvie Briand, director of the epidemic risk management department at WHO, told the microphones of France Info this morning, explaining the meaning. of the press release from the World Health Organization.
And Angelique Coetzee herself, president of the South African Medical Association who isolated the variant last November 18, invites us not to panic: "The symptoms given by the new version of the coronavirus are very mild, we have never seen serious effects ”, He explains, defining the reaction of many countries that have decided to close to arrivals from southern Africa as“ exaggerated ”. "The patients I saw had mild symptoms and recovered. No one was hospitalized and there was no need for oxygen."
Within a couple of weeks we will have definitive answers: on the mutations present in the variant, on the vaccine response, on the aggressiveness of the mutation itself.
But according to Franco Locatelli, coordinator of the CTS, the vaccinated are "largely protected" compared to Omicron. “To date, none of the isolated variants have been shown to be resistant to the effect of vaccines. It is likely that the effectiveness will be slightly reduced compared to this new variant ”, he says, inviting Italians to“ trust a rigorous methodological approach ”and to“ get vaccinated ”.
(Unioneonline / L)