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December 1, 2021

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Chinese vaccines work on Omicron

COVID-19 vaccines are effective against Omicron, the latest coronavirus variant, and can reduce severity of illness and mortality rate, Xu Wenbo, director of National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention under Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told China Media Group on Monday.

The variant has a large number of mutations, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is more transmissible or has greater degree of immune escape than Delta, said Xu.

“In general, Omicron remains the novel coronavirus, which is not going to change in a disruptive way,” he said.

The variant cannot completely break through the immune barrier because in addition to antibody and T-cell immunity, people are also protected by different types of vaccines, though the protective effect of vaccines need to be further studied, the expert said.

Scientists are attempting to figure out whether Omicron’s mutations would lead to greater transmissibility than the Delta variant, how strong the variant’s ability is to escape immunity and how the variant comes about, said Xu.

He advised the public to stick to preventive measures, including wearing masks, practicing social distancing, monitoring health and reducing non-essential traveling overseas, especially to countries or regions where the variant has been detected or is suspected to be circulating.

Xu also said yesterday that the country’s major nucleic acid testing reagents are effective against the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

The mutation of the Omicron variant will not affect the sensitivity and specificity of the current nucleic acid testing reagents in China, Xi said.

The World Health Organization has listed Omicron as a “variant of concern,” and said the overall global risk related to it is assessed as “very high.”

At least 17 countries and regions have detected the variant. Countries worldwide are taking containment measures while at least 70 countries and regions have imposed travel bans from some African countries, according to a CNN tally.

Meanwhile, a special session of the World Health Assembly kicked off in Geneva on Monday.

The WHA May session this year decided to set up a working group to consider the findings and recommendations of a number of panels and committees on global preparedness for and response to COVID-19 before starting their discussions on Monday on the potential new “legally binding agreement between nations.”

“COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated fundamental weaknesses in the global architecture for pandemic preparedness and response,” said World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the opening of the special session.

“The best way we can address them is with a legally binding agreement between nations, an accord forged from the recognition that we have no future but a common future,” he said.

According to Tedros, the new “pandemic treaty” is expected to address COVID-19 as “a crisis of solidarity and sharing.”

“The lack of sharing of PPE (personal protective equipment), tests, vaccines, technology, know-how, intellectual property and other tools hindered our collective ability to prevent infections and save lives,” he said, noting the lack of a consistent and coherent global approach has resulted in “a splintered and disjointed response, breeding misunderstanding, misinformation and mistrust.”

Though the WHO has said it is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible or causes more severe disease than the other known variants, including Delta, concerns over its impact on the efficacy of existing vaccines and treatments have been growing.

A number of countries have already introduced entry bans on travelers from South Africa, where Omicron was first confirmed on November 9 and has been identified in multiple European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Sweden.

Sweden’s Public Health Agency on Monday confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant, found when a traveler who last week returned to Sweden from South Africa was tested.

Portugal confirmed 13 cases of Omicron among players and staff members of the football club Belenenses SAD.

In Germany, the COVID-19 seven-day incidence rate climbed to a new all-time high of 452.4, up from 386.5 a week ago.




 

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