The Omicron variant has quickly spread all over the world, and scientists are starting to see patterns in where people are dying at a higher rate.
of the novel coronavirus is continuing its march around the planet. It’s now the dominant lineage in the United States, much of South America and Europe, and many Asian countries.registering any significant increase in severe illness or death. Cases go way up. Serious cases don’t. Singapore and South Africa are great examples.
reported the first cases. Compared to older lineages, Omicron features around 50 key mutations, around 30 of which are on the spike protein that helps the virus grab onto our cells. Singaporean authorities detected the first local case of Omicron in early December. A month later, the lineage accounts for most new infections in the Southeast Asian city-state, population 5.7 million.in Singapore after Omicron arrived. There were around 250 new infections a day back in mid-December. Now there are 800 a day and climbing–a threefold increase in just a month. But the death rate is flat. On average, one person a day died of COVID in Singapore in December.
Age is probably a factor. South Africa, population 59 million, is a young country. The median age is just 27, compared to a median age closer to 40 in Singapore. Younger people tend to be less vulnerable to all COVID variants than their parents and grandparents—and Omicron is no exception. The U.S. has registered 760,000 new COVID cases a day in recent days, a fivefold increase over the worst days of the Delta wave in the fall and triple the previous record of 230,000 new cases a day a year ago.
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