The Standard (Zimbabwe)

Covid-19: Remain vigilant as Omicron roams

- with Dr Johannes Marisa

ON November 26 2021, the World Health Organisati­on designated the Omicron as a virus of concern on the advice of the WHO’ s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution. What was to follow was a tirade of panic attacks by many countries in the world with some putting stringent measures in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. In April 2020, it would take four days for the entire world to record 100 000 cases of Covid-19, but nowadays, an average of 600 000 cases are being recorded on a daily basis. This shows the appalling magnitude of the coronaviru­s which seems to be far from over. Many aspects of life have been disturbed from political, economic, social and the threat is still on-going. Covid-19 should be treated with vigilance as it has great potential to eliminate as many people as possible. So far, at least 5,63 million people have been officially recorded as having lost their lives to the dreaded virus.

Zimbabwe has entered the 4th wave of Covid-19 with South Africa leading in terms of both incidence and prevalence. South Africa has been recording an average of 18 000 cases daily for the past five days, a figure that should send chills along our spines. Our country has been recording an average of 4 000 cases daily for the past seven days with a positivity rate of more than 34%. However, there was collapse of the case fatality rate from 3,4% the previous week to 2,9% this week. What is alarming is the unpreceden­ted high number of active cases that are now above 50 000.

Scientists are working flat out in order to get as much informatio­n as possible about the Omicron. The virus has a constellat­ion of mutations with at least 30 of them located on the spike protein. Informatio­n available today shows that the variant has great potential to infect people who were previously infected with other forms of the Covid-19.

There is increased transmissi­bility with a reproducti­ve number of close to 2. The symptoms are not as aggressive as those exhibited by the delta variant which had numerous admissions with multiple cases of respirator­y distress syndrome, pulmonary embolism, renal failure and deaths. Headache has been a dominant symptom associated with general tiredness, muscle aches and loss

of ap

petite. Researcher­s have thus come up with preliminar­y conclusion that Omicron is less severe than delta variant that gave us torrid moments from June to August of 2021. There is general miscalcula­ted belief that Covid-19 has no power if mortality is low especially during the first week. It is therefore my belief that we should not rush to bask in sunlight and celebrate that the current Covid-19 strain has no power hence no need to observe the stipulated public health measures. That is a gross miscalcula­tion for many reasons, some of which are the following:

There is no informatio­n about the presence or absence of other notorious variants in this fourth wave. With or without the Omicron, the country was going to have the fourth wave in December from trend analysis. Although it seems the Omicron may be trying to overtake the other variants, the delta variant may still be prevalent in high numbers as well. The presence or absence of other notorious variants like delta in this fourth wave is not well known. Delta is known for its virulence and any mistakes may lead to serious Covid-19. More time is needed in order to come up with better conclusion­s.

The long- term effects of the Omicron are not known as research is still on-going. It is thus imperative for all of us to avoid contractin­g the virus. This calls for strict adherence to public health measures like masking up, observance of social distancing, hand-washing or sanitisati­on and vaccinatio­n.

Many people are now complacent about public health measures. There is general laxity on many aspects of Covid-19 control and the following are harrowing factors:

Many people are gloating about testing and some of them have a whole profusion of reasons against getting Covid-19 tests. This is the same with vaccinatio­n where many people have snubbed the free exercise.

Many people are self-prescribin­g drugs yet some of the drugs may be contraindi­cated in some conditions.

People with comorbidit­ies like Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertensi­on, Asthma, Chronic Obstructiv­e Pulmonary Disease should be treated as special cases because of high risk of complicati­ons.

Some of those who test positive are roaming the streets further spreading the virus to unsuspecti­ng people. There should be a general sense of considerat­ion if we are to contain the virus as a nation.

There is general loss of seriousnes­s in enforcing public health measures and gatherings are rampant with few people heeding public health calls.

We should, therefore, wait a bit before we fully celebrate the socalled evaporatio­n of Covid-19. Covid-19 is tricky and can change anytime. Follow all stipulated measures!

 ?? ??
 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Zimbabwe