Omicron: Scientists race to work out how dangerous the variant is | COVID-19 Special

DW News published this video item, entitled “Omicron: Scientists race to work out how dangerous the variant is | COVID-19 Special” – below is their description.

Omicron has now been found in two dozen countries and infectious disease experts are still gathering data on the mutation.

It is still unclear what kind of risk Omicron poses and how effective vaccines will be against the new heavily mutated variant. We expect to have more information on transmission within days. The measures to contain the spread though are familiar. Many countries are sealing their borders. Despite the WHO claiming it’ll help very little and Dutch scientists saying the variant was already in Europe before it was first detected in a traveller from South Africa.

The US has recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, in a vaccinated traveller who returned to California after a trip to South Africa.

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