The Omicron variant is now prevalent in Sardinia and is present in over 70 percent of positive patients. These are the data processed by the analysis laboratory of the Duilio Casula and San Giovanni di Dio Polyclinic and which also explain how the virus is developing on the island. But they also reveal how much the New Year's holidays had an impact: in the previous survey, that of December 29, patients affected by Omicron were just 25 percent.
"The sequencing data from southern Sardinia - explains Ferdinando Coghe, medical director of the University Hospital of Cagliari and director of the Polyclinic Laboratory - certify that Omicron has replaced Delta becoming the prevailing variant, with 70% of cases detected in the last flash-survey prepared by the ISS in which the regional reference laboratory for central southern Sardinia participated. Not even a week earlier, the data obtained in the south of the island showed 25% of Omicron and 75% of Delta. It is evident that the imprudence of the last New Year produced the feared effects ”.
As the ECDC (the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention) had predicted, Coghe continues, “Omicron is becoming the dominant coronavirus variant in the EU and is set to consolidate this result by mid-January 2022. The Omicron variant has been shown to have 25% to 50% greater transmissibility than the Delta variant and as a result can spread more easily. A phenomenon already observed with the Delta variant, 50% more contagious than the Alpha variant, which was itself 50% more contagious than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain. Therefore, undergoing vaccination is more necessary than ever, precisely because Omicron could contribute to a significant increase in the number of cases, with a consequent increase in hospital admissions and deaths, especially affecting the population with low levels of vaccination and acquired immunity ".
The situation is very serious, concludes Coghe, who together with Professor Germano Orrù, head of the Aou Molecular Biology and Microbiology Service, works on sequencing. “The data speak for themselves - he continues -: the high diffusion of Omicron confirms the extreme contagiousness of this variant. And now, due to the large number of infected, even hospitals are coming back under pressure. Therefore it is appropriate to be extremely cautious and prudent ”.
(Unioneonline / vl)