World Health Organization officials said Thursday that omicron contained a large number of mutations but had only been detected in small numbers across South Africa. That includes more than 30 mutations to the spike protein that allows Covid to enter cells and 10 to the receptor binding domain that first makes contact with cells. The new strain features roughly 50 mutations, according to data presented by scientist Tulio de Oliveira at a briefing hosted by the South Africa Department of Health on Thursday. Omicron contains even more mutations than the world's most dominant Covid strain, the highly transmissible delta variant. Fauci said there was "no indication" that omicro n had reached the U.S. The new strain has now been detected in a growing number of countries, including Belgium, Botswana and Israel. is in "very active communication" with South African scientists and is working to get the molecular makeup of the variant in order to conduct lab tests.
"And we just arranged, right now, a discussion between our scientists and the South African scientists a little bit later in the morning to really get the facts, because you're hearing a lot of things back and forth."įauci emphasized that the U.S. "This is really something that's in motion," Fauci said.
would restrict travel for non-citizens from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Biden administration officials later confirmed that the U.S.
The national rate is 95.2 now.With countries across Europe and Asia imposing travel restrictions on several nations in southern Africa, Fauci added that analyzing the data could help determine whether similar measures might also be necessary in the U.S. The rate dropped by over seven percentage points in these 17 days. The recovery rate slid further on Friday to 91.12 from 91.77 per cent on Thursday. However, it has become increasingly clear since that it was part of a much larger, nationwide wave and not an isolated regional spike. The trigger then was identified by sources in the state government as a general disregard for Covid-19 safety protocols among revellers in Calcutta and surrounding areas in the run up to Christmas. The surge was initially confined to the city and its immediate neighbourhood. In the 17 days since, the state has logged nearly 2.32 lakh new infections, including 85,824 from Calcutta. The total active caseload was 7,457 then. On December 28 - the last day of relatively normal numbers before the latest spell of the surge in Bengal, the statewide total was 752, including 382 from Calcutta. But it still means one out of every three tests is returning positive. The positive confirmation rate - the percentage of samples testing positive for the novel coronavirus - improved on Friday slightly to 31.14 from 32.13 per cent on Thursday. The state’s mortality rate is 1.07 per cent now, with that of infected males at 1.26 and of infected females 0.83. The 75-plus age group, with 22.7 per cent of the deaths, has the highest mortality rate, of 6.68. The most deaths - nearly 42 per cent - took place in the 61-75 age bracket, which has a mortality rate of 3.07. Over 90 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths in Bengal were of people aged 46 or more. Over a fourth of such deaths were caused by diabetes. Hypertension has been reported as the main comorbidity of a third of the 14,009 deaths. Calcutta logged seven and North 24-Parganas eight.Ĭomorbidities were attributed to 14,009 (70 per cent) of the total deaths. On Friday, thirteen of the state’s 23 districts reported zero deaths. The first death caused by the infection had been recorded on March 23, 2020, Calcutta and North 24-Parganas, taken together, accounted for over 52 per cent of the deaths. The state’s death toll from Covid-19 went past 20,000 to touch 20,013 on Friday. There were also 8,687 recoveries and 28 deaths, which along with the fresh infections, resulted in a rise by 13,930 in the total of active cases. In the 24-hour period till 9am on Friday, the state logged 22,645 infections, including 6,867 from Calcutta.