COVID-19: Can a recovered patient be infected with Omicron

New Delhi, Jan 08: The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has started wrecking havoc and there has been a sudden surge in the number of cases. While the hospitalisations are less, the spread of the variant is extremely fast.

In a note published, the World Health Organisation has spoken on whether those who had earlier contracted COVID-19 can be infected with the Omicron variant. Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe said, we can see another storm coming - Omicron is becoming, or already has become, dominant in several countries, including in Denmark, Portugal and the United Kingdom, where its numbers are doubling every one and a half to 3 days, generating previously unseen transmission rates.

Within weeks, Omicron will dominate in more countries of the Region, pushing already stretched health systems further to the brink. Omicron is likely to become the dominant variant circulating in our Region, WHO said.

The sheer volume of new COVID-19 infections could lead to more hospitalisations and widespread disruption to health systems and other critical services. It has unfortunately already resulted in hospitalisations and deaths, WHO said.

This variant can evade previous immunity in people - so it can still infect those who have had COVID-19 in the past, those who are unvaccinated, and those who were vaccinated many months ago. Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are 3 to 5 times more likely to be reinfected with Omicron compared to Delta.

We don't yet know whether Omicron causes more severe disease than the Delta variant, WHO also said.
On a positive note, early evidence supports the assumption that COVID-19 vaccines continue to do their job and save lives.

Based on the earliest Omicron cases reported to WHO/Europe, 89% of those people reported common COVID-19 symptoms - cough, sore throat, fever.

Up until now, the virus has been transmitted mostly among adults in their 20s and 30s, spreading initially in large cities and in clusters associated with social and workplace gatherings, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge also said.