Haven’t seen a huge proportion of extremely sick kids, says South Africa doctor who raised the Omicron alarm

Dr Angelique Coetzee, in an interview with Deccan Herald, said that although the transmissibility of Omicron is high, hospitalisations have not increased by much

The Pretoria-based doctor Dr Angelique Coetzee, who had alerted the authorities on the new variant Omicron, has said that the risks it poses worldwide might be that it is fast-spreading and even more contagious than Delta. “But again, we keep cautioning people that we need to get more data on that,” she said.

In an interview with Deccan Herald, she said, “For now, the variant is quite transmissible.”

Dr Coetzee, who is the chair of the South African Medical Association, had in November-end, noticed that some of her patients had symptoms different from Delta, which led to the detection of Omicron.

Describing what her patients presented themselves with, she said, “These were very common symptoms -- body ache and pains, severe headaches, tiredness, a little bit of blocked nose, scratchy throat, and might be an episode of dry cough.”

“No really increased temperatures, no oxygen need and also no loss of smell or taste… any of what we saw from Delta,” she said.

Also Read — Omicron’s fast spread could lead to surge in winter, says CDC

While the debate and questions on whether two doses of vaccination are enough or not to fight the new variant, Dr Coetzee said that for people who are being vaccinated, the efficacy is known but often, some of these vaccines are running out of time. “But we seek protection from severe disease in hospitals. Again, we need more data on this,” she informed.

At present, about 88 to 90 per cent of people in hospitals in South Africa are unvaccinated, she informed. “I also need to make it clear that hospital admissions are not out of proportion," she pointed out.

"We have not seen an overwhelming heavy influx of very sick patients.''

As for the vaccination for children against the new variant, she said that it’s difficult to say and that “it depends on the country”.

“In South Africa, we don’t see a huge proportion of extremely sick children (from the new variant). These are mostly small diseases from which they can recover quickly.”

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