Johannes Marisa On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organisation declared Omicron as a virus of concern on the account of WHO’s technical advisory group on virus evolution. What followed was panic attacks from a number countries in the world, with some putting in place stringent measures in a bid to control the spread of the virus. Today, more than 60 countries have recorded cases of the virus, while 24 of these being European countries. The knee-jerk responses was seen as villainous towards southern Africa which had all its flights banned from entering Europe. What an unfortunate development!
The United Kingdom has since lifted the ban on 11 African countries. Zimbabwe has entered another phase of COVID-19 with South Africa leading in terms of both incidence and prevalence.
On Tuesday, South Africa recorded 23 400 cases in one day while Zimbabwe recorded an average of 4 014 cases for the past seven days. The good news is the decline in the fatality rate from 3,4% the previous week to 2,9% this week.
What is alarming is the unprecedented high number of cases. Scientists are working flat out in order to get as much information as possible about the new variant. Information available shows that the variant has great potential to infect people who were previously infected with other variants.
There is increased transmissibility with a reproductive number of close to two. The symptoms are not as aggressive as those exhibited by the delta variant which had numerous admissions and 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 appetite. Researchers have thus come up with the conclusion that Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant that gave us torrid moments from June to August of 2021.
There is a general misconception that COVID-19 has no power if mortality is low especially during the first weeks. This may be misleading as what happened in Germany during the fourth wave is an good example. Mortality was contained at less than 30 people per day in Germany during the first 6 weeks of the fourth wave. Today, Germany is in tears with more than 500 people losing lives on daily basis.
It is, therefore, my belief that we should not rush to bask in the 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 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 ongoing. 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, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease should be treated as special cases because of the 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 a 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 so-called evaporation of COVID-19. The virus is tricky and can change at anytime. Follow all stipulated measures!
Johannes Marisa is the president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Association of Zimbabwe. He writes here in his personal capacity.
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