The WHO has warned that the new covid variant Omicron is probably already present in most countries around the world; officially cases have been reported from 77 counties.

Omicron spreading faster than any other variant: WHO

WHO warns not to underestimate Omicron | Coronavirus Latest News

Moderna Inc has claimed that its vaccine helps prevent the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. First discovered in South Africa, the new Covid variant has now spread into 89 countries in total. The company further said that the current version of the vaccine would &nbsp;be Moderna’s "first line of defence against Omicron."

The focus on mRNA-1273, which is the current vaccine, was based on how rapidly the Omicron variant is spreading.&nbsp;

Dr Paul Burton, Moderna's Chief Medical Officer, in an interview said, "It's highly effective, and it's extremely safe. I think it will protect people through the coming holiday period and through these winter months, when we're going to see the most severe pressure of Omicron."

However, the company still plans on making a vaccine specifically against the Omicron variant.&nbsp;

As per the company,&nbsp;a two-dose course of its vaccine generated low neutralising antibodies against the variant. However, a 50 microgram booster dose increased neutralising antibodies against the variant 37 fold. A 100 microgram booster dose of the same vaccine drove antibody over 80 times the pre-boost levels.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/christmas-travel-can-lead-to-doubling-of-omicron-cases-fauci-438291">Also read |&nbsp;Christmas travel can lead to doubling of Omicron cases: Fauci</a>

The company has assured that the 100 microgram dose is safe.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, a major real-world study suggested that the Pfizer Covid vaccine has weaker efficacy against the Omicron variant. The study revealed that the Pfizer vaccine had an efficacy of just 70 per cent against hospitalisation.

These findings are some of the earliest on protection against Omicron outside of lab studies, which have shown reduced neutralising activity against the variant.&nbsp;

As per the WHO, the number of Omicron cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission. However, researchers are still studying the variant and there is a lot that is to be analysed.

(With inputs from agencies)

Moderna Inc has claimed that its vaccine helps prevent the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. First discovered in South Africa, the new Covid variant has now spread into 89 countries in total.

Moderna Inc has claimed that its vaccine helps prevent the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. First discovered in South Africa, the new Covid variant has now spread into 89 countries in total. The company further said that the current version of the vaccine would be Moderna’s "first line of defence against Omicron." The focus on mRNA-1273, which is the current vaccine, was based on how rapidly the Omicron variant is spreading. Dr Paul Burton, Moderna's Chief Medical Officer, in an interview said, "It's highly effective, and it's extremely safe. I think it will protect people through the coming holiday period and through these winter months, when we're going to see the most severe pressure of Omicron." However, the company still plans on making a vaccine specifically against the Omicron variant. As per the company, a two-dose course of its vaccine generated low neutralising antibodies against the variant. However, a 50 microgram booster dose increased neutralising antibodies against the variant 37 fold. A 100 microgram booster dose of the same vaccine drove antibody over 80 times the pre-boost levels. Also read | Christmas travel can lead to doubling of Omicron cases: Fauci The company has assured that the 100 microgram dose is safe. Meanwhile, earlier this month, a major real-world study suggested that the Pfizer Covid vaccine has weaker efficacy against the Omicron variant. The study revealed that the Pfizer vaccine had an efficacy of just 70 per cent against hospitalisation. These findings are some of the earliest on protection against Omicron outside of lab studies, which have shown reduced neutralising activity against the variant. As per the WHO, the number of Omicron cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission. However, researchers are still studying the variant and there is a lot that is to be analysed. (With inputs from agencies)

Moderna says its booster shot is effective against Omicron variant

COVID alert raised to level 4 in the UK as it reports the first death from Omicron variant of coronavirus. PM Boris Johnson raised concerns about which the virus is accelerating.

COVID-19: UK reports first death from Omicron variant | Alert raised to level 4

The Omicron variant of coronavirus makes its way into China, as Asian country reports first such case. China orders stricter virus protocols.

After taking the world by storm, the Omicron variant of coronavirus makes its way into China

As COVID cases surge in South Africa amid Omicron variant's spread, President Cyril Ramaphosa tests COVID positive. Indian PM Narendra Modi and WHO wished him a speedy recovery. `

Fully vaccinated South African President Cyril Ramaphosa test COVID positive amid Omicron scare

World Health Organization warned the nations to not dismiss the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as mild. WHO also added that vaccines may have reduced effectiveness.

Coronavirus surge alarms the world

With the projection of Omicron being a milder COVID variant than Delta and its limited impact on fuel demand, oil prices rise. Prices extend gain from last Friday.

Oil prices rise with Omicron's projected limited impact on fuel demand

UK PM Boris Johnson warns of a tidal wave of Omicron cases in the country as the UK raises alert to level 4. UK is currently witnessing a steady rise in COVID cases.

A tidal wave of Omicron approaching says PM Boris Johnson as the UK raises alert to level 4

As Omicron cases rise, India's ICMR comes up with a new made in India testing kit that can detect the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 in 2 hours.

India's ICMR launches a new indigenous kit capable of detecting the Omicron variant in 2 hours

The number of Omicron cases rising in the United Kingdom has been enormously worrying for the authorities. Experts have warned that Omicron variant could become the dominant strain in the United Kingdom by the end of December.

United Kingdom reports rapid spread of the Omicron variant

According to South African doctors, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is milder than that of Delta. The number of COVID cases soar in the African nation.

South African Doctors: Omicron variant milder than Delta

As the Omicron variant of coronavirus spreads its wings in the US, the number of cases and deaths reported a surge in the US. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average COVID deaths per day have shot up 28%.

Amid Omicron threat, COVID-19 cases & deaths surge in US

A study conducted in the UK to examine the efficacy of vaccines against the Omicron variant of COVID-19 claims that booster shots provides up to 75% protection against the new variant.

A study in the UK claims booster doses are effective against the Omicron variant of COVID-19

Omicron has pushed back the resumption of scheduled international flights. They will now remain suspended till January 31, 2022, as per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines.

India: No commercial flights till January 31, order released by DGCA | Omicron Variant

COVID-19 cases in Omicron-hit South Africa more than double within a week as it reports around 20,000 new cases and 36 COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours. However, it is still early to determine how many of these cases are because of the Omicron variant.

South Africa records 20,000 Covid cases of Omicron variant

As cases surge across England amid Omicron variant's presence, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces new COVID restrictions, including mandatory vaccine passports and work from home.

New COVID restrictions, including mandatory vaccine passports announced in UK amid Omicron threat

With over 500 Omicron variant cases, Britain has woken up to the threat as Omicron variant surge across the country. British PM Boris Johnson has announced tighter covid-19 restrictions, the new measures include, work from home, Covid vaccine passports mandatory and more.

Boris Johnson government introduces tougher covid-19 restrictions amid Omicron surge

Omicron wave hits South Africa as 20,000 new COVID-19 cases & 36 deaths reported in last 24 hours

With looming uncertainty over the Omicron variant and subsequent global alarms, in the latest providing some clarity, WHO chief said that there is an increased risk of reinfection from this variant, however, there is evidence that it causes milder diseases as compared to Delta variant.

WHO: Omicron more transmissible but milder than Delta variant

Latest variant of coronavirus Omicron variant has been found in 57 countries across the world while scientists are still studying the transmissibility of the variant, concerns of Omicron are only increasing. In the latest, three-shot course can neutralize Omicron variant.

Pfizer: Booster promising against Omicron | Coronavirus News

As the world grapples with Omicron, the WHO has warned the nations about the threat of the new variant. Omicron has been found to be spread at a faster pace than the previous variant.

Omicron found to spread at faster pace compared to other COVID variants

Sports schedules go haywire due to Omicron Covid variant: What's cancelled, what's postponed

The World Health Organisation on Saturday said that the Omicron variant of Covid virus is spreading “significantly faster” than Delta variant, with a doubling time of 1.5 to 3 days.

The global health body said that Omicron—which has been identified as variant of concern— is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity and added that the new Covid strain has been identified in 89 countries.

In its ‘Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529): Technical Brief and Priority Actions for Member States’ report on Friday, the WHO said that given the current available data, it is likely that Omicron will outpace Delta where community transmission occurs.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/can-omicron-and-delta-unite-to-create-an-even-worse-covid-19-variant-expert-has-the-answer-437905">Can Omicron and Delta unite to create an even worse COVID-19 variant? Expert has the answer</a>

"Omicron is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity and it remains uncertain to what extent the observed rapid growth rate can be attributed to immune evasion, intrinsic increased transmissibility or a combination of both," it said.

"As of 16 December 2021, the Omicron variant has been identified in 89 countries across all six WHO regions. Current understanding of the Omicron variant will continue to evolve as more data becomes available," it added.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/covid-19-experts-name-one-common-symptom-of-omicron-variant-437842">COVID-19: Experts name one common symptom of Omicron variant</a>

However, the WHO pointed out that there is a limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron and that more data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity.

The overall threat posed by Omicron largely depends on how transmissible the variant is; how well vaccines and prior infection protect against infection, transmission, clinical disease and death; how virulent the variant is compared to other variants; and how populations understand these dynamics, perceive risk and follow control measures, including public health and social measures, it said.

(With inputs from agencies)

The World Health Organisation on Saturday said that the Omicron variant of Covid virus is spreading “significantly faster” than Delta variant, with a doubling time of 1.

The World Health Organisation on Saturday said that the Omicron variant of Covid virus is spreading “significantly faster” than Delta variant, with a doubling time of 1.5 to 3 days. The global health body said that Omicron—which has been identified as variant of concern— is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity and added that the new Covid strain has been identified in 89 countries. In its ‘Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529): Technical Brief and Priority Actions for Member States’ report on Friday, the WHO said that given the current available data, it is likely that Omicron will outpace Delta where community transmission occurs. Also read | Can Omicron and Delta unite to create an even worse COVID-19 variant? Expert has the answer "Omicron is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity and it remains uncertain to what extent the observed rapid growth rate can be attributed to immune evasion, intrinsic increased transmissibility or a combination of both," it said. "As of 16 December 2021, the Omicron variant has been identified in 89 countries across all six WHO regions. Current understanding of the Omicron variant will continue to evolve as more data becomes available," it added. Also read | COVID-19: Experts name one common symptom of Omicron variant However, the WHO pointed out that there is a limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron and that more data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity. The overall threat posed by Omicron largely depends on how transmissible the variant is; how well vaccines and prior infection protect against infection, transmission, clinical disease and death; how virulent the variant is compared to other variants; and how populations understand these dynamics, perceive risk and follow control measures, including public health and social measures, it said. (With inputs from agencies)

Omicron has doubling time of 1.5 to 3 days, will outpace Delta in community transmission: WHO

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Sunday that in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, India should prepare itself for any eventuality.&nbsp;

"We should prepare and hope that things are not as bad as in the United Kingdom. We need more data on Omicron. Whenever there is a surge in cases in other parts of the world, we need to monitor it closely and be prepared for any eventuality.&nbsp; It is better to stay prepared than to get caught off-guard," said Guleria while talking to ANI.

India has so far reported over 100 cases of Omicron.The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25.&nbsp;

As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as `Omicron`. The WHO has classified Omicron as a `variant of concern`.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Sunday that in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, India should prepare itself for any eventuality.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Sunday that in view of rising COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, India should prepare itself for any eventuality. "We should prepare and hope that things are not as bad as in the United Kingdom. We need more data on Omicron. Whenever there is a surge in cases in other parts of the world, we need to monitor it closely and be prepared for any eventuality. It is better to stay prepared than to get caught off-guard," said Guleria while talking to ANI. India has so far reported over 100 cases of Omicron.The new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as `Omicron`. The WHO has classified Omicron as a `variant of concern`.

Omicron: We should prepare and hope things are not as bad as in UK, says AIIMS chief

Amid the Omicron threat, the Australian government on Wednesday decided to reopen its borders for&nbsp;vaccinated&nbsp;skilled migrants and foreign students.

The government had earlier pushed back the date after declaring it was reopening on December 1. The reopening comes even as Sydney in New South Wales recorded 800 new COVID-19 cases. There were also seven deaths reported in the country.

However, unvaccinated people continue to be under restrictions in the country. They have been barred from entering bars and restaurants including other public events.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/omicron-cases-may-reach-parity-with-delta-by-mid-december-uk-health-agency-437127">Also Read:&nbsp;Omicron cases may reach parity with Delta by mid-December: UK health agency</a>

The country has detected over 85 Omicron cases so far amid fears that the number may rise further as it has been&nbsp;found to be highly transmissible and vaccine-resistant.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison emphasised that the country has to "live with this virus" as citizens&nbsp;get&nbsp;ready to celebrate Christmas.

Watch:&nbsp;Pfizer says its COVID-19 pill shows 90% efficacy, cuts hospitalisation

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/pfizer-says-its-covid-19-pill-shows-90-efficacy-cuts-hospitalisation-risk-437138/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

On the domestic front, Queensland and Tasmania decided to open their borders to areas which have been experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases.&nbsp;

Reports claim Australia has inoculated over 90 per cent of its population. The country has closed its borders in March, 2020 as the pandemic took hold worldwide. The government had prohibited its own citizens from coming back as it implemented one of the world's most stringent border lockdowns.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-covid-death-toll-tops-800000-in-global-record-most-who-died-were-unvaccinated-436983">Also Read:&nbsp;US Covid death toll tops 800,000 in global record</a>

However, as the domestic economy has been hit due to labour shortages the government decided to reopen the borders including allowing foreign students which is a multi-billion dollar industry in Australia.&nbsp;

According to official data over 235,000 foreigners and 160,000 students had visas to enter Australia in October.&nbsp;

The country has recorded 235,500 COVID-19 cases and 2,117 fatalities so far, however, amid the rise in cases New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard warned that COVID-19 cases could rise to 25,000 daily by January end.&nbsp;

(With inputs from Agencies)

Amid the Omicron threat, the Australian government on Wednesday decided to reopen its borders for vaccinated skilled migrants and foreign students. The government had earlier pushed back the date after declaring it was reopening on December 1.

Amid the Omicron threat, the Australian government on Wednesday decided to reopen its borders for vaccinated skilled migrants and foreign students. The government had earlier pushed back the date after declaring it was reopening on December 1. The reopening comes even as Sydney in New South Wales recorded 800 new COVID-19 cases. There were also seven deaths reported in the country. However, unvaccinated people continue to be under restrictions in the country. They have been barred from entering bars and restaurants including other public events. Also Read: Omicron cases may reach parity with Delta by mid-December: UK health agency The country has detected over 85 Omicron cases so far amid fears that the number may rise further as it has been found to be highly transmissible and vaccine-resistant. Prime Minister Scott Morrison emphasised that the country has to "live with this virus" as citizens get ready to celebrate Christmas. Watch: Pfizer says its COVID-19 pill shows 90% efficacy, cuts hospitalisation On the domestic front, Queensland and Tasmania decided to open their borders to areas which have been experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases. Reports claim Australia has inoculated over 90 per cent of its population. The country has closed its borders in March, 2020 as the pandemic took hold worldwide. The government had prohibited its own citizens from coming back as it implemented one of the world's most stringent border lockdowns. Also Read: US Covid death toll tops 800,000 in global record However, as the domestic economy has been hit due to labour shortages the government decided to reopen the borders including allowing foreign students which is a multi-billion dollar industry in Australia. According to official data over 235,000 foreigners and 160,000 students had visas to enter Australia in October. The country has recorded 235,500 COVID-19 cases and 2,117 fatalities so far, however, amid the rise in cases New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard warned that COVID-19 cases could rise to 25,000 daily by January end. (With inputs from Agencies)

Australia allows vaccinated non-citizens to enter amid Omicron threat

India has detected 101 cases of Omicron variant of the Covid virus, the health authorities said on Friday, while asking people to keep new year celebrations a low-key affair.

While addressing reporters on the daily bulletin, join secretary of the health department, Lav Agarwal, said that the Omicron cases have been recorded in 11 states and union territories so far.

Among the states where Omicron cases have been reported are: Maharashtra with 32 cases, Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17), Karnataka (8), Telangana (8), Gujarat (5), Kerala (5), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1), the government said.

“Only a few Omicron cases are without travel history. There is nothing to conclude that we are in the community transmission phase of Omicron,” Agarwal said.&nbsp;

With the coronavirus' Omicron variant spreading very fast across Europe and other parts of the world, people need to avoid non-essential travel.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/we-might-not-need-booster-shot-of-vaccine-to-fight-omicron-fauci-436182">We might not need booster shot of vaccine to fight Omicron: Fauci</a>

“They must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity,” the government said.

The official pointed out that though daily COVID-19 cases are below 10,000 for the past 20 days, there is a need to stay vigilant in view of the new variant and rising cases in other countries.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/omicron-cases-in-77-countries-spreading-at-unprecedented-rate-who-436962">Omicron cases in 77 countries, spreading at unprecedented rate: WHO</a>

Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO), the government said that it is likely that Omicron will outpace the Delta variant where community transmission occurs.

On the COVID-19 situation in the country, it said 19 districts are reporting weekly positivity between 5 and 10 per cent and five districts over 10 per cent.

It assured that sufficient systematic and strategic sampling is being undertaken for genome sequencing for the detection of Omicron cases in India.

(With inputs from agencies)

India has detected 101 cases of Omicron variant of the Covid virus, the health authorities said on Friday, while asking people to keep new year celebrations a low-key affair.

India has detected 101 cases of Omicron variant of the Covid virus, the health authorities said on Friday, while asking people to keep new year celebrations a low-key affair. While addressing reporters on the daily bulletin, join secretary of the health department, Lav Agarwal, said that the Omicron cases have been recorded in 11 states and union territories so far. Among the states where Omicron cases have been reported are: Maharashtra with 32 cases, Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17), Karnataka (8), Telangana (8), Gujarat (5), Kerala (5), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1), the government said. “Only a few Omicron cases are without travel history. There is nothing to conclude that we are in the community transmission phase of Omicron,” Agarwal said. With the coronavirus' Omicron variant spreading very fast across Europe and other parts of the world, people need to avoid non-essential travel. Also read | We might not need booster shot of vaccine to fight Omicron: Fauci “They must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity,” the government said. The official pointed out that though daily COVID-19 cases are below 10,000 for the past 20 days, there is a need to stay vigilant in view of the new variant and rising cases in other countries. Also read | Omicron cases in 77 countries, spreading at unprecedented rate: WHO Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO), the government said that it is likely that Omicron will outpace the Delta variant where community transmission occurs. On the COVID-19 situation in the country, it said 19 districts are reporting weekly positivity between 5 and 10 per cent and five districts over 10 per cent. It assured that sufficient systematic and strategic sampling is being undertaken for genome sequencing for the detection of Omicron cases in India. (With inputs from agencies)

101 cases of Omicron variant detected in India so far, says health department official

The World Health Organization has said that the Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading at an unprecedented rate.

"Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of Omicron, and the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn't been detected yet," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

"Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant," he added.

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Considerable uncertainties surround Omicron, first detected last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong.

Researchers around the world are rushing to figure out what the variant will mean for the coronavirus pandemic now well into its second year.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/red-list-is-less-effective-uk-to-lift-travel-ban-on-11-african-countries-436937" hreflang="en">'Red list is less effective': UK to lift travel ban on 11 African countries</a>

The WHO said there were early signs that vaccinated and previously infected people would not build enough antibodies to ward off infection from Omicron, resulting in high transmission rates and "severe consequences".

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Corroborating the WHO's assessment, University of Oxford researchers published a lab analysis on Monday that registered a substantial fall in neutralising antibodies against Omicron in people who had had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Also see |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/omicron-chaos-a-list-of-countries-that-have-reported-cases-of-new-variant-432677">Omicron chaos: A list of countries that have reported cases of new variant</a>

The WHO cited preliminary evidence that the number of people getting reinfected with the virus has increased in South Africa.

"Even if the severity is potentially lower than for the Delta variant, it is expected that hospitalisations will increase as a result of increasing transmission. More hospitalisations can put a burden on health systems and lead to more deaths," it said.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in the country rose over the past two weeks from 8.07 new cases per 100,000 people on Novemeber&nbsp;29 to 34.37 new cases per 100,000 people on December&nbsp;13

However, Some experts have cautioned that it’s too soon to draw conclusions about the outcomes from omicron since the variant is still quite new and hospitalisations can lag weeks behind infections.

(With inputs from agencies)

The World Health Organization has said that the Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading at an unprecedented rate. "Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of Omicron, and the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn't been detected yet," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

The World Health Organization has said that the Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading at an unprecedented rate. "Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of Omicron, and the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn't been detected yet," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. "Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant," he added. Considerable uncertainties surround Omicron, first detected last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong. Researchers around the world are rushing to figure out what the variant will mean for the coronavirus pandemic now well into its second year. Also read | 'Red list is less effective': UK to lift travel ban on 11 African countries The WHO said there were early signs that vaccinated and previously infected people would not build enough antibodies to ward off infection from Omicron, resulting in high transmission rates and "severe consequences". "We’re concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild. Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril. Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems"-@DrTedros — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 14, 2021 × Corroborating the WHO's assessment, University of Oxford researchers published a lab analysis on Monday that registered a substantial fall in neutralising antibodies against Omicron in people who had had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Also see | Omicron chaos: A list of countries that have reported cases of new variant The WHO cited preliminary evidence that the number of people getting reinfected with the virus has increased in South Africa. "Even if the severity is potentially lower than for the Delta variant, it is expected that hospitalisations will increase as a result of increasing transmission. More hospitalisations can put a burden on health systems and lead to more deaths," it said. According to Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in the country rose over the past two weeks from 8.07 new cases per 100,000 people on Novemeber 29 to 34.37 new cases per 100,000 people on December 13 However, Some experts have cautioned that it’s too soon to draw conclusions about the outcomes from omicron since the variant is still quite new and hospitalisations can lag weeks behind infections. (With inputs from agencies)

Omicron spreading at an unprecedented rate, warns World Health Organization

Over the coming days and weeks, scientists from around the world will be sharing early information about the new Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. We are two researchers who study the evolution of viruses, and we will be keeping a close eye on the data as it becomes public. This new research will range from laboratory studies investigating how the virus interacts with antibodies to observations of patient outcomes to large-scale data on infections and hospitalizations. The data will try to answer three key questions, all of which are important to understanding the risk of Omicron.

How well can Omicron dodge the antibodies we have from vaccines and prior infections?

Omicron has many mutations, especially in the spike protein that is the main target of the antibodies generated by vaccination and prior infection. This is why scientists were concerned it could evade the defenses built by vaccines or by having had Covid-19. Lab experiments have already shown that Omicron has mutations that reduce the infection-blocking ability of antibodies to about one-fortieth of their effectiveness against an earlier version of the virus.

There is solid evidence that this increased antibody resistance of Omicron will lead to more infections among the vaccinated and previously infected. A study from South Africa found a higher rate of people getting infected a second time with Omicron than with previous waves caused by the Beta and Delta variants. Omicron has also caused some mild to moderate infections in individuals who were both vaccinated and had received a booster shot. An early report from Britain estimates that vaccine effectiveness against disease with symptoms is lower against Omicron than against Delta.

These early findings suggest that vaccines may not protect as well against infections as they did previously. And there’s a chance Omicron-specific boosters may be needed in the future.

Will the immunity we have still protect us against severe disease?

Even if some antibodies fail to block infection by Omicron, T cells and other antibodies developed from vaccination or infection may provide some protection against severe illness. In other words, deaths and hospitalizations may not track cases as closely as they have in previous pandemic waves. Measuring this requires data from clinics, hospitals and epidemiological studies that follow infections and symptoms in people over time. Such studies take more time than experiments in a lab.

It typically takes several weeks for severe Covid-19 to develop, which is why deaths and hospitalizations are what scientists call a “lagging indicator.” So while it’s fine to be optimistic when we hear early anecdotal reports about vaccinated people having only mild symptoms, remember that it will take time to have reliable data on disease severity overall. For example, it’s possible that Omicron could cause milder disease in people who have been previously vaccinated or infected but cause severe disease in people with no immunity. This will have implications for the burden that might be placed on hospitals.

Is Omicron more contagious than Delta?

We know that Omicron transmits well because it is causing an increasing number of cases in many countries. There are two factors that could contribute to this: Omicron may have a strong ability to infect people with no immunity, and it may have an increased ability to infect people with prior immunity from vaccinations or previous infections.

The balance of these two factors will determine whether Omicron is more transmissible than Delta in all populations, or just in places like South Africa and other countries, where there is a lot of immunity from people being infected previously. To better understand Omicron’s transmissibility, scientists will need to measure its rate of growth relative to other variants among different groups of people. Answering this question could help predict the timing of potential hospital surges.

What the answers will tell us

There are a few different scenarios for Omicron.

One is that Omicron is so transmissible that it spreads around the world and outcompetes all other variants, including Delta, so that, in the future, all new viruses are descended from Omicron. This scenario happened in mid-2020 with a variant called D614G (this was before variants were given Greek names) from which all subsequent variants are descended.

Another scenario is that Omicron spreads in some locations but ultimately turns out to be less transmissible than other variants and eventually falls out of the picture. This happened with Alpha and Beta in the first part of 2021.

Regardless of whether Omicron fully displaces other variants, it appears likely to cause a surge in cases around the world. The extent of this surge will depend on the level of immunity in different populations, the public health measures in force and the effects of factors like seasonal changes in temperature and humidity on transmission, which so far are poorly understood.

If Omicron causes a rise in cases but less severe disease than Delta, that would certainly be good news. But if it spreads widely, it could still send a large number of people to the hospital. Also remember that it’s possible Omicron is at least as severe as Delta in people without immunity. We also don’t yet understand the long-term health consequences of having Covid-19, and it will take weeks to understand how Omicron affects groups of people with different levels of immunity.

The measures that control the spread of other variants are also expected to help against Omicron. This includes increasing vaccination coverage, supporting rapid mass testing, improving indoor ventilation, encouraging the use of masks (as well as upgrading to higher-quality masks) and helping people identify when they are infected, making it easier to isolate. There is evidence that getting a booster increases protection beyond that provided by just the primary vaccine series.

Given the extensive mutations in Omicron, it may also be necessary to make Omicron-specific vaccines.

Embracing these measures while monitoring the unknowns will help strike a balance between reducing risk while still enjoying our lives. That’s what scientists, like everyone else, are hoping for.

Over the coming days and weeks, scientists from around the world will be sharing early information about the new Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. We are two researchers who study the evolution of viruses, and we will be keeping a close eye on the data as it becomes public.

Over the coming days and weeks, scientists from around the world will be sharing early information about the new Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. We are two researchers who study the evolution of viruses, and we will be keeping a close eye on the data as it becomes public. This new research will range from laboratory studies investigating how the virus interacts with antibodies to observations of patient outcomes to large-scale data on infections and hospitalizations. The data will try to answer three key questions, all of which are important to understanding the risk of Omicron. How well can Omicron dodge the antibodies we have from vaccines and prior infections? Omicron has many mutations, especially in the spike protein that is the main target of the antibodies generated by vaccination and prior infection. This is why scientists were concerned it could evade the defenses built by vaccines or by having had Covid-19. Lab experiments have already shown that Omicron has mutations that reduce the infection-blocking ability of antibodies to about one-fortieth of their effectiveness against an earlier version of the virus. There is solid evidence that this increased antibody resistance of Omicron will lead to more infections among the vaccinated and previously infected. A study from South Africa found a higher rate of people getting infected a second time with Omicron than with previous waves caused by the Beta and Delta variants. Omicron has also caused some mild to moderate infections in individuals who were both vaccinated and had received a booster shot. An early report from Britain estimates that vaccine effectiveness against disease with symptoms is lower against Omicron than against Delta. These early findings suggest that vaccines may not protect as well against infections as they did previously. And there’s a chance Omicron-specific boosters may be needed in the future. Will the immunity we have still protect us against severe disease? Even if some antibodies fail to block infection by Omicron, T cells and other antibodies developed from vaccination or infection may provide some protection against severe illness. In other words, deaths and hospitalizations may not track cases as closely as they have in previous pandemic waves. Measuring this requires data from clinics, hospitals and epidemiological studies that follow infections and symptoms in people over time. Such studies take more time than experiments in a lab. It typically takes several weeks for severe Covid-19 to develop, which is why deaths and hospitalizations are what scientists call a “lagging indicator.” So while it’s fine to be optimistic when we hear early anecdotal reports about vaccinated people having only mild symptoms, remember that it will take time to have reliable data on disease severity overall. For example, it’s possible that Omicron could cause milder disease in people who have been previously vaccinated or infected but cause severe disease in people with no immunity. This will have implications for the burden that might be placed on hospitals. Is Omicron more contagious than Delta? We know that Omicron transmits well because it is causing an increasing number of cases in many countries. There are two factors that could contribute to this: Omicron may have a strong ability to infect people with no immunity, and it may have an increased ability to infect people with prior immunity from vaccinations or previous infections. The balance of these two factors will determine whether Omicron is more transmissible than Delta in all populations, or just in places like South Africa and other countries, where there is a lot of immunity from people being infected previously. To better understand Omicron’s transmissibility, scientists will need to measure its rate of growth relative to other variants among different groups of people. Answering this question could help predict the timing of potential hospital surges. What the answers will tell us There are a few different scenarios for Omicron. One is that Omicron is so transmissible that it spreads around the world and outcompetes all other variants, including Delta, so that, in the future, all new viruses are descended from Omicron. This scenario happened in mid-2020 with a variant called D614G (this was before variants were given Greek names) from which all subsequent variants are descended. Another scenario is that Omicron spreads in some locations but ultimately turns out to be less transmissible than other variants and eventually falls out of the picture. This happened with Alpha and Beta in the first part of 2021. Regardless of whether Omicron fully displaces other variants, it appears likely to cause a surge in cases around the world. The extent of this surge will depend on the level of immunity in different populations, the public health measures in force and the effects of factors like seasonal changes in temperature and humidity on transmission, which so far are poorly understood. If Omicron causes a rise in cases but less severe disease than Delta, that would certainly be good news. But if it spreads widely, it could still send a large number of people to the hospital. Also remember that it’s possible Omicron is at least as severe as Delta in people without immunity. We also don’t yet understand the long-term health consequences of having Covid-19, and it will take weeks to understand how Omicron affects groups of people with different levels of immunity. The measures that control the spread of other variants are also expected to help against Omicron. This includes increasing vaccination coverage, supporting rapid mass testing, improving indoor ventilation, encouraging the use of masks (as well as upgrading to higher-quality masks) and helping people identify when they are infected, making it easier to isolate. There is evidence that getting a booster increases protection beyond that provided by just the primary vaccine series. Given the extensive mutations in Omicron, it may also be necessary to make Omicron-specific vaccines. Embracing these measures while monitoring the unknowns will help strike a balance between reducing risk while still enjoying our lives. That’s what scientists, like everyone else, are hoping for.

A scientist’s guide to understanding Omicron

When scientists discovered the highly mutated omicron variant of the coronavirus last month, it set off an eerily familiar chain of events.

Health experts held somber news conferences that raised more questions than answers. Officials imposed travel bans that very likely came too late. Virus trackers filled in their maps as the variant was reported in country after country. And the rest of us waited, with increasing unease, to learn more about the threat we were facing.

The same sequence unfolded nearly two years ago when the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was first discovered. In those early weeks of 2020, the United States proved to be woefully unprepared for the challenges ahead, starting with the most fundamental of tasks: detecting the virus.

“We had a delay of one to two months before we were even able to identify the presence of the virus,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, an infectious disease specialist and microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “And by that time, it had already circulated widely between multiple states and from coast to coast.”

These failures have been well chronicled, and omicron is one more sign that the current pandemic, which has now claimed the lives of nearly 800,000 Americans, is not over.

But omicron is also a dress rehearsal for the next pandemic. The work before us now — detecting, tracking and slowing the spread of a health threat we do not fully understand — is the same work that will be required to stop a future outbreak in its tracks.

The analogy is not perfect. When omicron arrived, scientists had already developed vaccines and treatments for the virus and were on high alert for new variants. The next pandemic may come with less warning.

“We know that there are pathogens worse than SARS-CoV-2 that are emerging and reemerging and waiting for their moment to take off,” said Rick Bright, CEO of the Pandemic Prevention Institute at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Omicron’s emergence is an opportunity to take stock of both the gains we have made and the ways in which we are still falling short. It is also a call to action: Whatever progress we have made is not enough.

Seek and You Shall Find

In any other context, it would have been unremarkable: On Nov. 28, a San Francisco resident who had been feeling mildly ill took a COVID test. The next day, it came back positive.

What set off alarm bells, however, was that the resident had recently returned from South Africa, where the newly discovered omicron variant was widespread.

The traveler’s test sample was flagged for priority genomic sequencing, which would reveal the precise genetic code of the virus that had infected the traveler and whether it had omicron’s telltale mutations.

Chiu, the microbiologist at UCSF, was tapped to do the sequencing. By 6 p.m. Nov. 30, just a few hours after Chiu first learned about the sample, it was hand-delivered to his lab, packed in dry ice.

Chiu and his colleagues quickly got to work. Although generating the full sequence takes hours, the scientists chose to use a technique known as nanopore sequencing, which allowed them to analyze the results in real time, while the process was still underway.

“As the data accumulated, we were able to identify more and more mutations,” Chiu recalled.

Before dawn, he was certain: It was omicron, the first case found in the United States. Less than a week had passed since South Africa first publicly announced the existence of the variant.

We cannot fight what we cannot see, and preventing the next pandemic begins with detecting and tracking the pathogens that threaten us. In that regard, at least, “we’re extraordinarily better off than we were this time last year,” said Joseph Fauver, a genomic epidemiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Testing, Testing, Testing

The first link in the disease surveillance chain is testing. Who is infected, and where are they? Without accurate, timely testing, it can become impossible to curb the spread of a pathogen.

Unfortunately, America bungled testing from the beginning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distributed faulty test kits, while supply shortages and regulatory delays created an epic mismatch between supply and demand. In the summer and fall of 2020, waits at testing sites could stretch for hours; the wait for results could take a week or more. There was no coordinated national testing plan.

These missteps allowed the virus to spread, unseen and unchecked, increasing the burden on hospitals and making other mitigation measures more difficult. Without accessible testing, the strategy that helped other countries break the chain of transmission — swiftly identifying people with the virus, isolating them and tracing their contacts — stood little chance.

As time passed, the testing crunch eased. Labs diversified their supply chains, bought new equipment and hired more staff, said Kelly Wroblewski, director of infectious diseases at the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

More and more tests won emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including rapid, at-home tests that delivered results on the spot.

“We’ve moved from hospitals to central labs to your living room,” said Mara Aspinall, an expert in biomedical diagnostics at Arizona State University. (Aspinall is on the board of directors of OraSure, which makes COVID tests.)

The CDC, which initially imposed stringent requirements on who could be tested for the virus, began recommending routine screening as a tool to curb transmission. By the time omicron was in the headlines, it was no longer remarkable for a 5-year-old to swab his own nose before school or for an ailing San Francisco resident, recently returned from South Africa, to get PCR results back in 24 hours.

“It’s like a night-and-day comparison between where we were at the beginning of the pandemic,” Wroblewski said.

But the United States is still doing less daily testing per capita, and it has a higher share of tests come back as positive than many other high-income countries, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

“We haven’t done a great job on making tests available,” said Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who was a member of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board during the presidential transition.

PCR processing times still vary widely, while rapid tests can be difficult to find in stores and remain beyond the budget for many Americans, especially because they are designed to be used frequently. (The Biden administration’s new plan to have health insurers reimburse members for at-home tests may help but has its limitations.)

Many of these problems can be traced to the nation’s failure to invest in testing early in the pandemic. The Trump administration created Operation Warp Speed to turbocharge vaccine development. The country needed a similar effort for diagnostic tests, experts said. Diagnostic testing may not be as tantalizing as vaccines, but in any future pandemic, they said, it should be a priority from the start.

Surveillance

The next vital link in the surveillance chain is routine, widespread genomic sequencing. This kind of surveillance helps experts keep tabs on how a pathogen is mutating and how new variants are spreading.

In the United States, this effort got off to a very slow start. “Many of the public health labs were, frankly, just overwhelmed by the initial testing volume and competing obligations,” said Duncan MacCannell, chief science officer at the CDC’s office of advanced molecular detection.

Although some research laboratories established their own independent sequencing programs, there was little funding or coordination.

In the spring of 2020, the CDC created a consortium of academic, commercial and public health labs to “start bootstrapping” a more focused national effort, MacCannell said. But progress was slowed by a lack of resources and a fragmented health care system that had no organized pipeline for getting patient samples from testing sites to sequencing labs.

“A lot of sequencing machines were idle in 2020,” said Bronwyn MacInnis, who directs pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But in late 2020 and early 2021, the emergence of the highly contagious alpha variant and an influx of federal funding finally kicked genomic surveillance into a higher gear. Since January, the country has gone from sequencing fewer than 3,000 samples a week to 50,000 to 60,000, on average, according to the CDC.

And when news of omicron broke, on Nov. 25, some labs redoubled their efforts, adding weekend hours and night shifts to search for the variant. Although Chiu’s lab was the first to detect it, researchers in other states — Minnesota, Colorado, New York and Hawaii — soon followed suit.

“Omicron has really shown that we have expanded our capacity significantly to be able to identify these variants as they emerge,” Chiu said.

Some research teams began looking for the variant in sewage. Because the virus is shed in feces, analyzing wastewater can provide a snapshot of whether the virus, or a particular variant, is present in a community and how prevalent it is.

Although wastewater epidemiology is not new, the pandemic has turned it from a niche pursuit into a mainstream strategy. The need to monitor the virus prompted the CDC, in partnership with other federal agencies, to create the National Wastewater Surveillance System, which could eventually be used to monitor antibiotic-resistant bacteria, food-borne pathogens and other microbes.

Omicron was a test of the approach. In early December, researchers found the variant at eight wastewater treatment plants in Houston, days before the city reported its first cases.

“This is the kind of thing that really allows us to get out in front of SARS-CoV-2,” said Samuel Scarpino, managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Pandemic Prevention Institute.

Room for Improvement

And yet, if omicron is a test of our preparedness for the unexpected, some experts are not convinced that we have passed. The United States was days behind many other countries in detecting the variant.

“That’s not a good sign,” said Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego.

Despite recent improvements, the country has sequenced a smaller share of cases since the beginning of the pandemic than many other nations, according to GISAID, an international database of viral genomes.

There are still delays in the system, and the omicron news broke on Thanksgiving, when processing times were most likely even longer than usual, experts said. (CDC data show a dip in the number of virus sequences added to public databases during the week of and the week after the holiday.)

The national effort is also uneven — with some states sequencing more than 20% of their COVID cases and others sequencing less than 3% — and may be missing certain regions or communities even within states, experts said.

“That is not an effective infrastructure for genetic surveillance of viral infections,” Emanuel said. “It’s got to be nationwide, and it’s got to be uniform.”

And the country needs to do a better job identifying people who are especially likely to be harboring new variants, scientists said. Rather than restrict travelers from abroad, officials could make a more concerted effort to test them for the virus and sequence positive samples.

People with breakthrough infections and those with compromised immune systems — who may have more trouble fighting off the virus, giving it more chances to mutate — should also be priorities for sequencing, experts said.

“Not only do we have to sequence, but we have to make sure we’re sequencing in the right communities and the right people,” said Janet Robishaw, senior associate dean for research at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Medicine in Boca Raton.

And while countries with centralized or nationalized health care systems, like Britain, can link the viral sequences to clinical data about patients relatively easily, in the United States that is much more difficult. Did the sample come from someone who was in the ICU or just home with a sniffle? Were they vaccinated and, if so, with which vaccine and when?

“We can do a lot with sequences in terms of looking at how fast omicron or delta or whatever is spreading,” said Trevor Bedford, an expert on viral evolution and surveillance at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “But it makes it hard to address really important scientific questions like, is delta more severe?”

For the Next Time

Some of the progress the country has made could leave us better positioned for the next pandemic. For instance, public health laboratories have new equipment and expertise, which they can now use to track the flu, food-borne illnesses and whatever the next great global health threat turns out to be.

But solidifying these gains will require a continuing commitment and funding after the immediate crisis has passed. “The historical pattern is, we surge, and then we forget, and we neglect,” Bright said.

Many exhausted health officials have already left their jobs, and legislators have passed more than 100 laws limiting the public health powers of state and local authorities, a New York Times review found.

Some of the problems that the pandemic has highlighted are deeply rooted. For example, a highly coordinated genomic surveillance program like Britain’s, which is frequently held up as an exemplar, was always going to be a heavy lift in the United States.

“We have this Balkanized health care system, and the system is a giant mess,” said Jeremy Kamil, a virus expert at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport.

And pandemic preparedness does not happen in a vacuum. Just as a more equitable distribution of vaccines might help squelch the next variant of concern, preventing the next big global outbreak will require ensuring that every country has the resources to detect and respond to emerging pathogens.

The United States is a large and fractured country — politically polarized and burdened with glaring inequities, rampant misinformation and disinformation, and a considerable distrust of public officials. These are enormous, thorny problems and are much harder to address than ensuring that labs have the capacity to detect omicron or any new pathogen.

“I’m confident in our ability to detect the variant,” Fauver said. “What I’m not confident in is our ability to do anything about it. We’re detecting the delta variant every single day, every time we sequence.”

Even before the omicron news broke, another delta-driven surge had already begun. Scientists are finding more omicron cases every day, and the variant could soon overtake delta. What comes next — what we should aim for, even — is less clear. Should we spend the winter trying to stop every infection? Protecting the highest risk people from severe disease and death? Ensuring that hospitals are not overrun?

“One thing that we’ve lacked continuously through the pandemic is a goal,” said Emily Gurley, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We still don’t have that. Certainly, we don’t have that for omicron.”

When scientists discovered the highly mutated omicron variant of the coronavirus last month, it set off an eerily familiar chain of events. Health experts held somber news conferences that raised more questions than answers.

When scientists discovered the highly mutated omicron variant of the coronavirus last month, it set off an eerily familiar chain of events. Health experts held somber news conferences that raised more questions than answers. Officials imposed travel bans that very likely came too late. Virus trackers filled in their maps as the variant was reported in country after country. And the rest of us waited, with increasing unease, to learn more about the threat we were facing. The same sequence unfolded nearly two years ago when the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was first discovered. In those early weeks of 2020, the United States proved to be woefully unprepared for the challenges ahead, starting with the most fundamental of tasks: detecting the virus. “We had a delay of one to two months before we were even able to identify the presence of the virus,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, an infectious disease specialist and microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “And by that time, it had already circulated widely between multiple states and from coast to coast.” These failures have been well chronicled, and omicron is one more sign that the current pandemic, which has now claimed the lives of nearly 800,000 Americans, is not over. But omicron is also a dress rehearsal for the next pandemic. The work before us now — detecting, tracking and slowing the spread of a health threat we do not fully understand — is the same work that will be required to stop a future outbreak in its tracks. The analogy is not perfect. When omicron arrived, scientists had already developed vaccines and treatments for the virus and were on high alert for new variants. The next pandemic may come with less warning. “We know that there are pathogens worse than SARS-CoV-2 that are emerging and reemerging and waiting for their moment to take off,” said Rick Bright, CEO of the Pandemic Prevention Institute at the Rockefeller Foundation. Omicron’s emergence is an opportunity to take stock of both the gains we have made and the ways in which we are still falling short. It is also a call to action: Whatever progress we have made is not enough. Seek and You Shall Find In any other context, it would have been unremarkable: On Nov. 28, a San Francisco resident who had been feeling mildly ill took a COVID test. The next day, it came back positive. What set off alarm bells, however, was that the resident had recently returned from South Africa, where the newly discovered omicron variant was widespread. The traveler’s test sample was flagged for priority genomic sequencing, which would reveal the precise genetic code of the virus that had infected the traveler and whether it had omicron’s telltale mutations. Chiu, the microbiologist at UCSF, was tapped to do the sequencing. By 6 p.m. Nov. 30, just a few hours after Chiu first learned about the sample, it was hand-delivered to his lab, packed in dry ice. Chiu and his colleagues quickly got to work. Although generating the full sequence takes hours, the scientists chose to use a technique known as nanopore sequencing, which allowed them to analyze the results in real time, while the process was still underway. “As the data accumulated, we were able to identify more and more mutations,” Chiu recalled. Before dawn, he was certain: It was omicron, the first case found in the United States. Less than a week had passed since South Africa first publicly announced the existence of the variant. We cannot fight what we cannot see, and preventing the next pandemic begins with detecting and tracking the pathogens that threaten us. In that regard, at least, “we’re extraordinarily better off than we were this time last year,” said Joseph Fauver, a genomic epidemiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Testing, Testing, Testing The first link in the disease surveillance chain is testing. Who is infected, and where are they? Without accurate, timely testing, it can become impossible to curb the spread of a pathogen. Unfortunately, America bungled testing from the beginning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distributed faulty test kits, while supply shortages and regulatory delays created an epic mismatch between supply and demand. In the summer and fall of 2020, waits at testing sites could stretch for hours; the wait for results could take a week or more. There was no coordinated national testing plan. These missteps allowed the virus to spread, unseen and unchecked, increasing the burden on hospitals and making other mitigation measures more difficult. Without accessible testing, the strategy that helped other countries break the chain of transmission — swiftly identifying people with the virus, isolating them and tracing their contacts — stood little chance. As time passed, the testing crunch eased. Labs diversified their supply chains, bought new equipment and hired more staff, said Kelly Wroblewski, director of infectious diseases at the Association of Public Health Laboratories. More and more tests won emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including rapid, at-home tests that delivered results on the spot. “We’ve moved from hospitals to central labs to your living room,” said Mara Aspinall, an expert in biomedical diagnostics at Arizona State University. (Aspinall is on the board of directors of OraSure, which makes COVID tests.) The CDC, which initially imposed stringent requirements on who could be tested for the virus, began recommending routine screening as a tool to curb transmission. By the time omicron was in the headlines, it was no longer remarkable for a 5-year-old to swab his own nose before school or for an ailing San Francisco resident, recently returned from South Africa, to get PCR results back in 24 hours. “It’s like a night-and-day comparison between where we were at the beginning of the pandemic,” Wroblewski said. But the United States is still doing less daily testing per capita, and it has a higher share of tests come back as positive than many other high-income countries, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. “We haven’t done a great job on making tests available,” said Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who was a member of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board during the presidential transition. PCR processing times still vary widely, while rapid tests can be difficult to find in stores and remain beyond the budget for many Americans, especially because they are designed to be used frequently. (The Biden administration’s new plan to have health insurers reimburse members for at-home tests may help but has its limitations.) Many of these problems can be traced to the nation’s failure to invest in testing early in the pandemic. The Trump administration created Operation Warp Speed to turbocharge vaccine development. The country needed a similar effort for diagnostic tests, experts said. Diagnostic testing may not be as tantalizing as vaccines, but in any future pandemic, they said, it should be a priority from the start. Surveillance The next vital link in the surveillance chain is routine, widespread genomic sequencing. This kind of surveillance helps experts keep tabs on how a pathogen is mutating and how new variants are spreading. In the United States, this effort got off to a very slow start. “Many of the public health labs were, frankly, just overwhelmed by the initial testing volume and competing obligations,” said Duncan MacCannell, chief science officer at the CDC’s office of advanced molecular detection. Although some research laboratories established their own independent sequencing programs, there was little funding or coordination. In the spring of 2020, the CDC created a consortium of academic, commercial and public health labs to “start bootstrapping” a more focused national effort, MacCannell said. But progress was slowed by a lack of resources and a fragmented health care system that had no organized pipeline for getting patient samples from testing sites to sequencing labs. “A lot of sequencing machines were idle in 2020,” said Bronwyn MacInnis, who directs pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But in late 2020 and early 2021, the emergence of the highly contagious alpha variant and an influx of federal funding finally kicked genomic surveillance into a higher gear. Since January, the country has gone from sequencing fewer than 3,000 samples a week to 50,000 to 60,000, on average, according to the CDC. And when news of omicron broke, on Nov. 25, some labs redoubled their efforts, adding weekend hours and night shifts to search for the variant. Although Chiu’s lab was the first to detect it, researchers in other states — Minnesota, Colorado, New York and Hawaii — soon followed suit. “Omicron has really shown that we have expanded our capacity significantly to be able to identify these variants as they emerge,” Chiu said. Some research teams began looking for the variant in sewage. Because the virus is shed in feces, analyzing wastewater can provide a snapshot of whether the virus, or a particular variant, is present in a community and how prevalent it is. Although wastewater epidemiology is not new, the pandemic has turned it from a niche pursuit into a mainstream strategy. The need to monitor the virus prompted the CDC, in partnership with other federal agencies, to create the National Wastewater Surveillance System, which could eventually be used to monitor antibiotic-resistant bacteria, food-borne pathogens and other microbes. Omicron was a test of the approach. In early December, researchers found the variant at eight wastewater treatment plants in Houston, days before the city reported its first cases. “This is the kind of thing that really allows us to get out in front of SARS-CoV-2,” said Samuel Scarpino, managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Pandemic Prevention Institute. Room for Improvement And yet, if omicron is a test of our preparedness for the unexpected, some experts are not convinced that we have passed. The United States was days behind many other countries in detecting the variant. “That’s not a good sign,” said Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego. Despite recent improvements, the country has sequenced a smaller share of cases since the beginning of the pandemic than many other nations, according to GISAID, an international database of viral genomes. There are still delays in the system, and the omicron news broke on Thanksgiving, when processing times were most likely even longer than usual, experts said. (CDC data show a dip in the number of virus sequences added to public databases during the week of and the week after the holiday.) The national effort is also uneven — with some states sequencing more than 20% of their COVID cases and others sequencing less than 3% — and may be missing certain regions or communities even within states, experts said. “That is not an effective infrastructure for genetic surveillance of viral infections,” Emanuel said. “It’s got to be nationwide, and it’s got to be uniform.” And the country needs to do a better job identifying people who are especially likely to be harboring new variants, scientists said. Rather than restrict travelers from abroad, officials could make a more concerted effort to test them for the virus and sequence positive samples. People with breakthrough infections and those with compromised immune systems — who may have more trouble fighting off the virus, giving it more chances to mutate — should also be priorities for sequencing, experts said. “Not only do we have to sequence, but we have to make sure we’re sequencing in the right communities and the right people,” said Janet Robishaw, senior associate dean for research at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Medicine in Boca Raton. And while countries with centralized or nationalized health care systems, like Britain, can link the viral sequences to clinical data about patients relatively easily, in the United States that is much more difficult. Did the sample come from someone who was in the ICU or just home with a sniffle? Were they vaccinated and, if so, with which vaccine and when? “We can do a lot with sequences in terms of looking at how fast omicron or delta or whatever is spreading,” said Trevor Bedford, an expert on viral evolution and surveillance at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “But it makes it hard to address really important scientific questions like, is delta more severe?” For the Next Time Some of the progress the country has made could leave us better positioned for the next pandemic. For instance, public health laboratories have new equipment and expertise, which they can now use to track the flu, food-borne illnesses and whatever the next great global health threat turns out to be. But solidifying these gains will require a continuing commitment and funding after the immediate crisis has passed. “The historical pattern is, we surge, and then we forget, and we neglect,” Bright said. Many exhausted health officials have already left their jobs, and legislators have passed more than 100 laws limiting the public health powers of state and local authorities, a New York Times review found. Some of the problems that the pandemic has highlighted are deeply rooted. For example, a highly coordinated genomic surveillance program like Britain’s, which is frequently held up as an exemplar, was always going to be a heavy lift in the United States. “We have this Balkanized health care system, and the system is a giant mess,” said Jeremy Kamil, a virus expert at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport. And pandemic preparedness does not happen in a vacuum. Just as a more equitable distribution of vaccines might help squelch the next variant of concern, preventing the next big global outbreak will require ensuring that every country has the resources to detect and respond to emerging pathogens. The United States is a large and fractured country — politically polarized and burdened with glaring inequities, rampant misinformation and disinformation, and a considerable distrust of public officials. These are enormous, thorny problems and are much harder to address than ensuring that labs have the capacity to detect omicron or any new pathogen. “I’m confident in our ability to detect the variant,” Fauver said. “What I’m not confident in is our ability to do anything about it. We’re detecting the delta variant every single day, every time we sequence.” Even before the omicron news broke, another delta-driven surge had already begun. Scientists are finding more omicron cases every day, and the variant could soon overtake delta. What comes next — what we should aim for, even — is less clear. Should we spend the winter trying to stop every infection? Protecting the highest risk people from severe disease and death? Ensuring that hospitals are not overrun? “One thing that we’ve lacked continuously through the pandemic is a goal,” said Emily Gurley, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We still don’t have that. Certainly, we don’t have that for omicron.”

Omicron is a dress rehearsal for the next pandemic

The nation’s coronavirus testing capacity, already straining to keep up with demand, is facing enormous new pressure, with holiday travellers waiting in long lines to be tested, overworked laboratories struggling to keep up, and rapid at-home diagnostics flying off pharmacy shelves as the omicron variant fuels a rapid spike in COVID-19 cases.

Two years into the pandemic, the surging desire for tests in the face of limited supply threatens to thwart President Joe Biden’s response, but it is hardly a new problem. The United States has bungled testing from the outset of the pandemic, experts say, and matching supply with demand has been a persistent challenge for both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Biden came into office vowing to make testing for the virus cheap and easily accessible, and there have been some improvements since he was sworn in. Laboratory tests are more plentiful now, and more than a dozen at-home tests are available, up from zero in January. The Food and Drug Administration has sped up its approval process, and the supply of at-home tests has increased steadily since August; last month, it was expected to double by March.

But the United States remains a far cry from Europe, where more than three dozen types of at-home tests are available for as little as $1 to $2 per test. Americans can pay as much as $25 for a box of two, and Biden’s plan to have insurers reimburse for those purchases will not take effect until mid-January at the earliest.

In Miami, cars lined up bumper to bumper this week at a drive-thru test site. In Providence, Rhode Island, there were no testing appointments available at a local CVS; those looking to be tested were instructed to buy over-the-counter at-home tests.

In the Brooklyn borough of New York City, people waited in line for two hours Thursday to be tested at a medical clinic in Park Slope. New York state, an early epicenter of the pandemic, recorded 21,027 positive coronavirus cases Friday, the highest number reported on a single day during the entire pandemic.

Around the country, retailers — both online and brick-and-mortar — are having trouble keeping over-the-counter tests in stock. Walmart was selling Abbott’s rapid antigen test online Friday, but many stores in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs were sold out. In Houston, the pharmacist at a local Walgreens, Hanh Ho, said shipments of at-home tests arrive every Wednesday and sell out the same day.

“They’re a hot item,” Ho said. “One guy came in and took all of them.”

The difference between the United States and Europe is rooted partly in their differing health care systems but also stems from a critical decision that the Biden administration made months ago: not to subsidize tests in the same way it subsidizes vaccines. Some Western countries decided early on to shoulder much, if not all, of the testing costs, guaranteeing demand and, some argue, lowering prices through purchasing agreements with major manufacturers.

The Biden White House only recently — in back-to-back announcements in September and October — committed to spending a total of $3 billion to buy tests. More than half has been spent on over-the-counter tests, senior administration officials said.

“It’s been a dreadful situation from Day One of the pandemic, and I would say it’s still botched,” said Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research. “We should have an ample supply of rapid tests freely available,” as in Britain, Israel and some other countries, he added.

Earlier this month, Biden announced that at-home tests would be reimbursed by insurers for the 150 million Americans who have private insurance and that the administration would distribute an additional 25 million tests to community health centers and rural clinics, which tend to treat lower-income patients.

But the announcement drew immediate complaints from public health experts, including Topol, who objected to requiring that people go through the process of seeking reimbursement. Topol said the notion that consumers would routinely front such costs in the hope of reimbursement was “a nonstarter.”

White House officials say they are working to further expand production of at-home tests, which would in turn create market competition and, presumably, drive down the cost.

Demand is only expected to grow after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed a new approach Friday for allowing children exposed to the coronavirus to stay in school, testing at least twice over the course of a week, instead of requiring them to quarantine.

“We are continuing to do everything we can to continue to grow that supply,” Carole Johnson, testing coordinator for the White House coronavirus response team, said in an interview Friday.

The testing push received a boost Friday when a federal appeals court reinstated the Biden administration’s rule requiring that many companies mandate that their workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus or face weekly testing.

During any infectious disease outbreak, there are two major reasons to use tests, experts say: to determine if someone is infected and to protect others from getting infected. To diagnose COVID, doctors generally rely on polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests — highly sensitive tests that are performed in laboratories.

But with omicron spreading quickly, experts foresee a jump in demand for rapid antigen tests, the quick version that are sold over the counter, which many people use for peace of mind.

During a White House briefing Friday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, advised people to “do a test and make sure that you’re negative before you mix and gather in different households” over the holidays, “for that extra reassurance.”

Reassurance is what Stan Smith, 67, was seeking Friday at a busy testing site in Orlando, Florida. He said he had no symptoms and was vaccinated, yet he had already waited nearly 90 minutes for a test.

“We’ve got to look out for each other,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m going to be around anybody who could contaminate me, but I don’t want to be that person either. Christmas is only a week away.”

Mara Aspinall, an expert in biomedical diagnostics at Arizona State University who keeps track of testing capacity, has forecast that in January, the United States will produce a total of 613 million coronavirus tests, including 243 million rapid antigen tests, the ones sold over the counter.

“If omicron continues to spread as fast as it appears, we’ll be very challenged on any reasonable number of tests, particularly prophylactic testing before gathering,” she said, “and that is a huge concern.”

Test manufacturers report that demand is booming — even for the most expensive tests.

Executives at Detect recently received authorization from the FDA to market a new type of molecular at-home test, which its developers say is as sensitive — but not nearly as expensive — as PCR tests, generally considered the gold standard for detecting coronavirus infection. Their work was financed by the National Institutes of Health.

The price is high: $49 per test, plus $39 for a reusable “hub,” which is used to run the tests. But when Detect began selling the tests online this week, demand was so high that company officials said they will more than likely start reducing the number of test kits that someone can order from four to two.

“We haven’t done any advertising of any sort,” the company’s chief executive, Hugo Barra, said in an interview Friday. He said the company intends to scale up production so the cost of the tests falls.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who advised Biden during his transition, said the administration should simply purchase over-the-counter tests and distribute them to pharmacies, where they could be sold at a low cost or even given away.

“If you had central purchase by the government, you could drive the price way down, which is very important,” he said.

For now, the high cost of at-home tests is a huge barrier; in some states, including Massachusetts and Colorado, officials are distributing them free of charge. Yet some consumers have expressed unease about the at-home tests, fearing that they are not as reliable as PCR tests.

“I would be more comfortable leaving it to professionals rather than myself,” said Fortune Maduba, 23, a grocery store worker in Houston who was preparing to travel to Nigeria.

In Providence on Friday, Silvi Goldstein, 28 and a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island, was waiting to be tested at a state-run site outside the Rhode Island Convention Center. Staff members at the testing site said labs were overwhelmed, and Goldstein said she expected to wait 72 hours for her results — three times as long as she had to wait during the summer.

“I’ve considered at-home tests — they’re expensive,” Goldstein said.

According to a report this month by the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University, the United States has both the world’s highest rate of tests per capita and the worst COVID-19 outbreak. The worse the outbreak, the more tests are needed, the center said, but experts disagree about what rate of testing is sufficient.

The rate of testing varies significantly from state to state, and not always in tandem with the coronavirus threat. For instance, Massachusetts’ rate of testing is about three times that of Michigan, even though Michigan’s rate of positive tests is three times that of Massachusetts. Demand for testing dropped in many places after vaccination became widely available.

“We got it up and running and then everyone sort of eased off because of the vaccine and said, ‘We’re not really going to need this stuff,’” Emanuel said. “And the problem is, that’s not true.”

The nation’s coronavirus testing capacity, already straining to keep up with demand, is facing enormous new pressure, with holiday travellers waiting in long lines to be tested, overworked laboratories struggling to keep up, and rapid at-home diagnostics flying off pharmacy shelves as the omicron variant fuels a rapid spike in COVID-19 cases.

The nation’s coronavirus testing capacity, already straining to keep up with demand, is facing enormous new pressure, with holiday travellers waiting in long lines to be tested, overworked laboratories struggling to keep up, and rapid at-home diagnostics flying off pharmacy shelves as the omicron variant fuels a rapid spike in COVID-19 cases. Two years into the pandemic, the surging desire for tests in the face of limited supply threatens to thwart President Joe Biden’s response, but it is hardly a new problem. The United States has bungled testing from the outset of the pandemic, experts say, and matching supply with demand has been a persistent challenge for both the Trump and Biden administrations. Biden came into office vowing to make testing for the virus cheap and easily accessible, and there have been some improvements since he was sworn in. Laboratory tests are more plentiful now, and more than a dozen at-home tests are available, up from zero in January. The Food and Drug Administration has sped up its approval process, and the supply of at-home tests has increased steadily since August; last month, it was expected to double by March. But the United States remains a far cry from Europe, where more than three dozen types of at-home tests are available for as little as $1 to $2 per test. Americans can pay as much as $25 for a box of two, and Biden’s plan to have insurers reimburse for those purchases will not take effect until mid-January at the earliest. In Miami, cars lined up bumper to bumper this week at a drive-thru test site. In Providence, Rhode Island, there were no testing appointments available at a local CVS; those looking to be tested were instructed to buy over-the-counter at-home tests. In the Brooklyn borough of New York City, people waited in line for two hours Thursday to be tested at a medical clinic in Park Slope. New York state, an early epicenter of the pandemic, recorded 21,027 positive coronavirus cases Friday, the highest number reported on a single day during the entire pandemic. Around the country, retailers — both online and brick-and-mortar — are having trouble keeping over-the-counter tests in stock. Walmart was selling Abbott’s rapid antigen test online Friday, but many stores in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs were sold out. In Houston, the pharmacist at a local Walgreens, Hanh Ho, said shipments of at-home tests arrive every Wednesday and sell out the same day. “They’re a hot item,” Ho said. “One guy came in and took all of them.” The difference between the United States and Europe is rooted partly in their differing health care systems but also stems from a critical decision that the Biden administration made months ago: not to subsidize tests in the same way it subsidizes vaccines. Some Western countries decided early on to shoulder much, if not all, of the testing costs, guaranteeing demand and, some argue, lowering prices through purchasing agreements with major manufacturers. The Biden White House only recently — in back-to-back announcements in September and October — committed to spending a total of $3 billion to buy tests. More than half has been spent on over-the-counter tests, senior administration officials said. “It’s been a dreadful situation from Day One of the pandemic, and I would say it’s still botched,” said Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research. “We should have an ample supply of rapid tests freely available,” as in Britain, Israel and some other countries, he added. Earlier this month, Biden announced that at-home tests would be reimbursed by insurers for the 150 million Americans who have private insurance and that the administration would distribute an additional 25 million tests to community health centers and rural clinics, which tend to treat lower-income patients. But the announcement drew immediate complaints from public health experts, including Topol, who objected to requiring that people go through the process of seeking reimbursement. Topol said the notion that consumers would routinely front such costs in the hope of reimbursement was “a nonstarter.” White House officials say they are working to further expand production of at-home tests, which would in turn create market competition and, presumably, drive down the cost. Demand is only expected to grow after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed a new approach Friday for allowing children exposed to the coronavirus to stay in school, testing at least twice over the course of a week, instead of requiring them to quarantine. “We are continuing to do everything we can to continue to grow that supply,” Carole Johnson, testing coordinator for the White House coronavirus response team, said in an interview Friday. The testing push received a boost Friday when a federal appeals court reinstated the Biden administration’s rule requiring that many companies mandate that their workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus or face weekly testing. During any infectious disease outbreak, there are two major reasons to use tests, experts say: to determine if someone is infected and to protect others from getting infected. To diagnose COVID, doctors generally rely on polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests — highly sensitive tests that are performed in laboratories. But with omicron spreading quickly, experts foresee a jump in demand for rapid antigen tests, the quick version that are sold over the counter, which many people use for peace of mind. During a White House briefing Friday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, advised people to “do a test and make sure that you’re negative before you mix and gather in different households” over the holidays, “for that extra reassurance.” Reassurance is what Stan Smith, 67, was seeking Friday at a busy testing site in Orlando, Florida. He said he had no symptoms and was vaccinated, yet he had already waited nearly 90 minutes for a test. “We’ve got to look out for each other,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m going to be around anybody who could contaminate me, but I don’t want to be that person either. Christmas is only a week away.” Mara Aspinall, an expert in biomedical diagnostics at Arizona State University who keeps track of testing capacity, has forecast that in January, the United States will produce a total of 613 million coronavirus tests, including 243 million rapid antigen tests, the ones sold over the counter. “If omicron continues to spread as fast as it appears, we’ll be very challenged on any reasonable number of tests, particularly prophylactic testing before gathering,” she said, “and that is a huge concern.” Test manufacturers report that demand is booming — even for the most expensive tests. Executives at Detect recently received authorization from the FDA to market a new type of molecular at-home test, which its developers say is as sensitive — but not nearly as expensive — as PCR tests, generally considered the gold standard for detecting coronavirus infection. Their work was financed by the National Institutes of Health. The price is high: $49 per test, plus $39 for a reusable “hub,” which is used to run the tests. But when Detect began selling the tests online this week, demand was so high that company officials said they will more than likely start reducing the number of test kits that someone can order from four to two. “We haven’t done any advertising of any sort,” the company’s chief executive, Hugo Barra, said in an interview Friday. He said the company intends to scale up production so the cost of the tests falls. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who advised Biden during his transition, said the administration should simply purchase over-the-counter tests and distribute them to pharmacies, where they could be sold at a low cost or even given away. “If you had central purchase by the government, you could drive the price way down, which is very important,” he said. For now, the high cost of at-home tests is a huge barrier; in some states, including Massachusetts and Colorado, officials are distributing them free of charge. Yet some consumers have expressed unease about the at-home tests, fearing that they are not as reliable as PCR tests. “I would be more comfortable leaving it to professionals rather than myself,” said Fortune Maduba, 23, a grocery store worker in Houston who was preparing to travel to Nigeria. In Providence on Friday, Silvi Goldstein, 28 and a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island, was waiting to be tested at a state-run site outside the Rhode Island Convention Center. Staff members at the testing site said labs were overwhelmed, and Goldstein said she expected to wait 72 hours for her results — three times as long as she had to wait during the summer. “I’ve considered at-home tests — they’re expensive,” Goldstein said. According to a report this month by the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University, the United States has both the world’s highest rate of tests per capita and the worst COVID-19 outbreak. The worse the outbreak, the more tests are needed, the center said, but experts disagree about what rate of testing is sufficient. The rate of testing varies significantly from state to state, and not always in tandem with the coronavirus threat. For instance, Massachusetts’ rate of testing is about three times that of Michigan, even though Michigan’s rate of positive tests is three times that of Massachusetts. Demand for testing dropped in many places after vaccination became widely available. “We got it up and running and then everyone sort of eased off because of the vaccine and said, ‘We’re not really going to need this stuff,’” Emanuel said. “And the problem is, that’s not true.”

With Omicron, US testing capacity faces intense pressure

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