The Omicron variant of Covid continues to run: in South Africa, the country where it was first identified, cases have quadrupled in four days and there is a peak in hospitalizations of children under the age of five.
According to the founder of BioNTech Ugur Sahin, a new vaccine could be needed to curb its spread: "The fact that you mute is nothing new - explained Ugur Sahin - but it happens faster than I expected, what is happening now to me I would be waiting for next year ". The timing of a possible new vaccine will not be short, he specifies: "The development is very complex, it is divided into many phases and lasts about 100 days".
The alarm is at least partially mitigated by WHO data which, in the face of the surge in infections, signals what appears to be a minor aggression of Omicron: "No death has yet been reported" linked to the variant, despite having already reached 38 countries in the world.
IN THE WORLD - Between Omicron and Delta in many European countries an attempt is being made to balance between restrictions and the safeguarding of economies already put to the test by almost two years of pandemic.
Switzerland , in order not to give up the ski season, has lifted the quarantine for incoming tourists, doubling however the anti-Covid tests. Great Britain , after having anticipated the third dose, despite the 50,584 infections recorded in the last 24 hours, invited not to give up the Christmas dinner with friends and relatives. France (which has returned to almost 50 thousand daily infections and over 2 thousand hospitalizations in intensive care), faced with the increase in infections of children who at the beginning of the pandemic appeared almost naturally immune, has cleared the vaccination for those between 5 and 11 years at risk of contracting severe forms of the disease. It will start in mid-December.
Germany , after deciding the lockdowns for the unvaccinated , declared Poland and Switzerland at high risk due to the high number of infections, imposing a quarantine on those who arrive. After Great Britain, also decided to reduce the interval between the second and third dose to three months.
