Why is Omicron so different?

The federal government on Saturday announced that non-Australian citizens who had been in nine countries in southern Africa where Omicron had been detected were barred from entering Australia. Two COVID-positive travellers from southern Africa who arrived in New South Wales on Saturday have tested positive for the variant.

All parties’ response to Omicron

Scott Morrison described the emergence of the coronavirus variant as “concerning” but said Australia had dealt with other strains of the virus before. Mr Morrison also noted Australia was not in the same position that it was at the beginning of the pandemic. Currently, 86.7 per cent of the population aged 16 and over is fully vaccinated. 

PM Scott Morrison

Victorian health authorities are asking for people to remain calm as they wait for more information on the emerging Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.

The variant has not been detected in the state, and the state’s chief health officer Brett Sutton says that high levels of vaccination mean Victoria will not be regressing to measures taken at the start of the pandemic. 

Professor Sutton

Professor Sutton also noted that precautionary measures will be important to allow authorities to gauge the health response required by the new variant, with very little information known on it so far. Victorians eligible for their booster shot have also been urged to book their appointments, to provide additional protection against the virus.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he would not speculate on whether Australia was likely to have to close its international border again, but authorities were working on a “risk-balanced” approach. 

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said there has been no signs Omicron is a more dangerous disease in terms of impact of hospitalisation, serious illness or loss of life.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt

According to experts, current vaccines may well prove to be extremely effective against the variant and should still offer protection against serious infection and death.

The UN health agency said it could take several weeks to complete studies of the variant to see if there are any changes in transmissibility, tests and treatments.

The UN health agency

Current knowledge about Omicron 

Transmissibility: It is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (e.g., more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta.

Severity of disease: It is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta. 

Preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection with Omicron.  

There is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants.  Initial reported infections were among university students—younger individuals who tend to have more mild disease—but understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks. 

Effectiveness of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection: Preliminary evidence suggests there may be an increased risk of reinfection with Omicron (ie, people who have previously had COVID-19 could become reinfected more easily with Omicron), as compared to other variants of concern, but information is limited.

Effectiveness of vaccines: WHO is working with technical partners to understand the potential impact of this variant on our existing countermeasures, including vaccines. Vaccines remain critical to reducing severe disease and death, including against the dominant circulating variant, Delta. Current vaccines remain effective against severe disease and death.   

Effectiveness of current tests: The widely used PCR tests continue to detect infection, including infection with Omicron, as we have seen with other variants as well. Studies are ongoing to determine whether there is any impact on other types of tests, including rapid antigen detection tests.  

Effectiveness of current treatments: Corticosteroids and IL6 Receptor Blockers will still be effective for managing patients with severe COVID-19. Other treatments will be assessed to see if they are still as effective given the changes to parts of the virus in the Omicron variant.  

Reinstatement of border closures gets support of epidemiologists

Nancy Baxter, head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, said shutting the borders to certain countries was a “tough” measure but the right move, given what we know so far about Omicron.

Nancy Baxter, head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health

Scientists around the world are working to discover if it is more infectious than other strains of COVID, and whether it is more resistant to vaccines. Authorities will need to keep an eye on other countries where Omicron may already have spread, Professor Baxter added.

Omicron highlights low vaccination rates in southern Africa

Experts say the emergence of Omicron underlines the need to boost vaccine rates in poor countries — particularly in Africa.

Vinod Balasubramaniam

“A more effective way to prevent the variant’s spread would be to increase vaccination rates in southern African countries as opposed to locking them out from the rest of the world,” said Vinod Balasubramaniam, an infectious diseases expert at Monash University Malaysia.

“Every time the virus reproduces inside someone there’s a chance of it mutating and a new variant emerging,” Dr Balasubramaniam said. “It’s a random process, a bit like rolling dice. The more you roll, the greater the chance of new variants appearing.

“The main way to stop variants is equal global vaccination. The emergence of Omicron reminds us of how important that goal remains.”

Vaccine “inequity” and hesitancy

While it’s not clear whether Omicron originated in South Africa or was brought into the country from elsewhere, some scientists say the virus is more likely to mutate in places where vaccination is low and transmission is high. 

Only 24 per cent of South Africa’s population is fully vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy combined with lack of access were behind the lower vaccination rates.

The World Health Organisation has criticised wealthy nations for the “self defeating” and “immoral” practice of hoarding Covid-19 vaccines and failing to deliver on promises to share doses with the developing world.

According to the WHO, only 7.5 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, compared with 63.9 per cent of people in high-income countries.

The WHO had set a target for all countries to vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations by the end of September, but 56 countries were unable to meet this target, most of them in Africa.

The WHO says the only way to achieve these targets is for the countries and companies that control vaccine supply to put contracts for the multilateral COVAX initiative and the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust. Australia has pledged to donate 60 million vaccine doses, making it among the most generous countries per capita.

But the government has largely ignored the COVAX initiative in favour of bilateral agreements with countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, in what critics describe as “vaccine diplomacy”, influenced more by geopolitical motivations.

Jeremy Farrar, director of UK health charity the Wellcome Trust, said new variants were “a reminder if we needed it that the pandemic is far from over, inequity is what will extend the pandemic”.

Mask wearing, social distancing encouraged

Despite high rates of vaccination in Australia, experts are warning against complacency.

“There has been discussion about scaling back contact tracing — that is not a good idea,” Professor Martiniuk said. “We should continue with QR code check-in, masking, especially while we try to understand Omicron, because it may already be here in Australia.”

The WHO said it would take “a few weeks” to understand the full impact of Omicron.

In the meantime, measures that have been used throughout the pandemic to stop the spread of the virus needed to be maintained, Professor Baxter said.

“Masks work on all forms of COVID. Social distancing works on all forms of COVID. Better ventilation works on all forms of COVID.

“New variants are one of the reasons why we need to think about more than just vaccines,” she said. “We need to think about vaccines, plus the other things that we can do to reduce transmission.”