Those with Omicron may not need 10 days leave’

MBABANE – People found to have tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may not be entitled to a 10 days leave, if the rules are to be changed.

This is because it has been discovered in South Africa, where people are recovering from the variant within three to four days.

However, no Omicron case has been reported in Eswatini as yet.

This is despite that several cases were confirmed in neighbouring South Africa and other parts of the continent.

In the past, people found to have tested positive for COVID-19 were entitled to a mandatory 10 days sick leave. When the pandemic was first discovered, some workers were taking as much as two months leave.

The Omicron variant replicates around 70 times faster than the Delta

variant and the very first COVID-19 strain, though the infection severity is likely to be much lower, according to South African doctors.

Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said this week that Eswatini was yet to receive results from Pretoria which would determine if the country has Omicron or not.

CommuniCatE

“We will communicate as soon as we receive the results from Pretoria,” he said.

For sequencing of COVID-19, the country uses the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Pretoria.

Though many people had already said that the fourth wave of the COVID-19 carried the Omicron variant, Dr Magagula said it would be dangerous to make speculation.

“We have to base it on science not speculation,” he said.

Dr Magagula said the fact that the country did not have proof of the presence of Omicron, meant it was difficult to tell how the variant responded to the vaccines administered in the country such as Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer and Astra Zeneca.

However, he said there was no hazard from mixing the vaccines.

Asked why the country was suddenly seeing deaths from COVID-19 yet since the fourth wave started, there was none, he said the vaccines does not stop all deaths.

“Vaccines reduce the chance of severity of the condition. Hence, it reduces the chances of a person dying from the condition. It does not stop chances of getting infected. It also does not stop all deaths,” he said.

The Ministry of Health had said this week, the reported deaths over COVID-19 early in the week were of people who had not been vaccinated.

Currently, the only clue that the country could have Omicron is a passenger in Taiwan who had recently travelled to Eswatini. The

traveller was tested in Taiwan and found to be positive for Omicron.

The passenger, a Taiwanese woman in her 30s who returned on December 8, was later taken to a quarantine hospital, according to the Central Epidemic Command Canter, which is in charge of the island’s pandemic response. Passengers who sat near her on the plane had tested negative so far.

While the Omicron variant is called a ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO), scientists are still working to determine how it may compare with the predominant Delta variant in terms of transmissibility and severity.

EvidEncE

The WHO said this week that there was evidence to show that COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against infection and transmission linked to the Omicron variant, which also carries a higher risk of reinfection.

The WHO, in its weekly epidemiological update, said more data was needed to better understand the extent to which Omicron may evade immunity derived from either vaccines or previous infection.

Discovery Health Insurance said this week that the Omicron variant dominates infections and is currently responsible for more than 90 per cent of cases in South Africa.