The first patient in Ukraine, in whom the Omicron strain was identified, had been previously sick with coronavirus. This was told by the chief infectious disease specialist, honored doctor Olga Golubovskaya.
"The Omicron variant was detected in a patient under treatment at the Oberig clinic due to a correctly collected epidemiological anamnesis. The patient had had a coronavirus infection some months ago, and now he had just come back from the UAE with a high fever and was ill again, but not very severe and under observation, although he had been discharged from the hospital. He was given recommendations and we will see how it all ends, "- said Golubovskaya.
The infectiologist noted that this is certainly not the first case of Omicron in Ukraine, but there is no need to panic.
"But the most important thing I want to say, this is certainly not the first case, so there is absolutely no need to panic, doctors already see how patients start getting sick for the second time and it is understandable, because Omicron, if we said that Delta is contagious, much more contagious than previous ones, then this one is even more contagious than Delta. This variant, it doesn't yet show more severe cases. On the contrary, so far, all the cases are fairly unsevere. We can see that patients who have high antibody titers, especially post-vaccination antibody titers of several thousand, are still getting sick, but they are not yet seriously ill. We very much hope that this will continue to be the case, unless there are some spontaneous mutations. But according to the reports that we see around the world, this variant, yes, causes explosive spreading of the disease, but it is not severe" - said Golubovskaya.
The doctor also noted that Covid-19 has a good chance of escalating into an influenza virus.
"With increasing contagiousness, this pathogen shows a decrease in virulence, so we are all very hopeful that this will be the way to transition into a seasonal respiratory disease. That is, it will and like the actual flu virus, elude its previous versions, but will lose its aggressiveness and virulence, but nevertheless, I think the risk groups will always be more vulnerable", - emphasized Olga Golubovskaya. - I've been saying for a long time that there is already a lot of it in Ukraine. Every day I see when people fall ill, get ill repeatedly, of course, people become ill with increased body temperature, of course the first thing that comes to mind is a completely new variant which escapes from the protection a person has. And there are not a few such patients today. This is just the first patient who has been identified", - added the doctor.
The first case of Omicron strain has been diagnosed in Ukraine.
Recall that the first person infected with B.1.1.529 strain was recently found in Botswana. According to local radio station SABC, the person in question is a citizen of South Africa.
On Nov. 26, the World Health Organization named the new strain COVID-19 with the Greek letter Omicron. The organization qualified the new variant as worrisome.
The new strain has already been detected in several European and Asian countries, North America, Japan and Australia, among others. Many countries have begun restricting or banning travel from southern Africa to curb the spread of this variant.
