The New Variant: Omicron

Covid. Delta, UK, Omicron. What’s the difference? For almost two years, Covid-19 has been ravaging the world. At first, Covid-19 was all there was. But, viruses are always mutating and adapting to survive. When Covid-19 became a global pandemic, variants were bound to pop up Then in India, the Delta variant emerged. This has been the most dominant variant for the past months, spreading faster than regular Covid. But on November 24, 2021, Botswana reported a new variant to the World Health Organization (WHO) : Omicron. The WHO proceeded to flag the variant just two days later, November 26, as a variant of concern. Right now, here’s what you need to know about Omicron. The CDC says that the variant will most likely spread faster than the original Covid. And, an early South African study backs that up. In fact, it shows that Omicron’s transmissibility is way more than original Covid. Breakthrough cases seem to be more common. But, Omicron appears to not cause as many hospitalizations as previous versions of Covid because more people are now vaccinated. Getting vaccinated and boosted remain the most important ways to protect each other and the BCS community.