How worried should Hong Kong be about ‘Omicron’ the new and heavily mutated coronavirus variant from southern Africa, with 2 cases detected in city?
- Experts are still trying to assess threat posed by the B.1.1.529 variant, but one unusual feature is its high number of mutations, far more than what is found in the Delta version
- Most of the 84 confirmed cases are in southern Africa and nations have responded with travel bans, with Hong Kong following suit
So far, most of the cases have arisen in southern Africa, prompting the city to follow the example of a number of countries and ban non-residents from several nations on the continent from entering.
What do we know so far?
The variant – which was designated “Omicron” on November 26 in keeping with global naming conventions based on the Greek alphabet – was first discovered in Botswana, southern Africa. Apart from the two known infections in Hong Kong, there have been 77 confirmed cases in Gauteng province in South Africa, four in Botswana and one in Israel.
While it is still early days and little is known for certain, scientists say what distinguishes the variant from previous ones is its high number of mutations.
At a media briefing earlier this week, Professor Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, said the B.1.1.529 variant contained as many as 50 mutations overall and 32 on the spike protein, the key the virus uses to enter human cells and the part that a vaccine targets. The Delta variant has between 13 and 17 mutations on its spike protein.