Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Vaccines DO work against Omicron
Early stats suggest variant is unlikely to evade current vax
VACCINES do work against the new Omicron Covid variant, some of the earliest data collected suggests.
Israel said its population monitoring indicated that jabbed people still have a good degree of protection.
It came as a World Health Organisation official reportedly said so far most Omicron cases are “mild” and no severe cases had been detected.
It will be a few weeks before it is clear whether it spreads more quickly, evades vaccines, or causes more serious disease.
Israel’s health minister Nitzan Horowitz said yesterday: “There is already room for optimism, and there are initial indications that those with a vaccine still valid or with a booster, will also be protected from this variant.”
Omicron has 32 mutations on the spike protein which the virus uses to enter cells, around twice as many as previous variants.
Nearly 18 million people in the UK have had their booster and a further 28 million are now eligible to get one after all over-18s were invited, and
the gap between second dose and booster was halved to three months. Hospitals say the rush to jab millions will mean cancelled operations and longer treatment waits.
Yesterday nine Omicron cases were detected in England and one in Scotland, taking the UK total to 32.
Those south of the border were found in the East Midlands, East of England,
London, the South East and North West. Dr Jenny Harries, UKHSA chief, said: “It is very likely that we will find more cases over the coming days.”
It comes as leaked minutes from a Sage meeting on Monday showed Government scientists say the impact of Omicron is “highly uncertain” but may require a “very stringent response”.
And Sage subgroup Nervtag said it “can’t rule out” the NHS being swamped if the strain is strongly vaccine resistant.
The UK recorded 48,374 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, up 10.8% on last Wednesday, and 171 deaths.
Hospitalisations continued to fall, with 706 admissions on Saturday, the latest date for which data is available.
The Government said yesterday it had signed deals to buy 114 million additional Pfizer and Moderna jabs.