Top US pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci has warned of a bleak winter ahead as the Omicron coronavirus variant spurs a new wave of infections globally, sparking restrictions and concerns over hospital capacity.
“One thing that’s very clear … is [Omicron’s] extraordinary capability of spreading,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told broadcaster NBC News on Sunday.
“It is just … raging through the world.”Since it was first reported in southern Africa in November, Omicron has been identified in dozens of countries, prompting many to reimpose travel restrictions and other measures in an attempt to slow outbreaks.
Despite some preliminary indications Omicron is not more severe than the Delta variant – currently, still the dominant strain – the heavily mutated Omicron has been shown in early data to have some resistance to vaccines and higher transmissibility. Fauci also cautioned against too much optimism over Omicron’s severity, noting that in South Africa, while the hospitalisation-to-case ratio is lower than with Delta, this could be due to underlying immunity from widespread previous infections.
“No matter how you look at it,” he said, “when you have so many, many infections, even if it is less severe, that overcomes this slight to moderate diminution in severity.”“
Our hospitals, if things look like they’re looking now in the next week or two, are going to be very stressed,” particularly in areas of the country with low levels of vaccination, Fauci said.
On Sunday, US senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker each said separately on Twitter that they had tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated and boosted, and were experiencing mild symptoms.
Warren, 72, said on Twitter she was “grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated and boosted.” “I urge everyone who has not already done so to get the vaccine and the booster as soon as possible,” she said.Neither of the senators indicated whether they had been infected with Omicron. Fauci urged unvaccinated Americans to get a shot and the vaccinated to get boosters, which have been shown to give addded protection.