Omicron has doubling rate of two days, may dominate US cases in weeks ahead, warns US Centres for Disease Control
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is more transmissible than the Delta variant of COVID-19 and has a doubling rate of about two days. CDC director Rochelle Walensky said that the Omicron variant now represents over three per cent of the total number of cases in the US.
“The vast majority, 96 per cent of cases across the country are Delta. Omicron is estimated to be more than three per cent. We expect to see the proportion of Omicron continue to grow in the coming weeks,” she said in a virtual briefing.
The CDC director further noted that at least 36 states and over 75 countries have reported confirmed cases caused by the Omicron variant. The CDC released data on the Omicron variant based on the US’ national genomic sequencing analysis.
Omicron will overtake Delta in early 2022: ECDC
Besides the US CDC, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has suggested that the Omicron variant can overtake the Delta variant of COVID-19 to become the dominant strain of coronavirus by the early days of 2022. Labelled as a variant of concern by the WHO, the highly-mutated strain of coronavirus is either equal to or weaker than delta in its strength, the ECDC said.
