Another letter that spells dread amid pandemic

The World Health Organization has given the name Omicron to a new coronavirus variant that was first detected in South Africa and suggested the variant is more transmissible than other forms of the virus.

The agency said last week that there was preliminary evidence that the new variant, which it named after the Greek letter, was more transmissible than the Delta variant, and other virus strains.

Omicron is a "variant of concern", the WHO said, a designation given to variants such as Delta that require close scrutiny from public health officials.

Omicron's risks are as yet not fully understood, but evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. That means people who contracted COVID-19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again.

It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.

South African researchers identified the first Omicron case on Nov 9, then reported the variant to the WHO on Wednesday.

Most of the known cases are still concentrated in southern Africa.

Vaccine makers such as Moderna, BioNTech-Pfizer and Johnson& Johnson all said that they are testing how well their vaccines protect against Omicron.

Xinhua - Agencies