The Omicron variant of Covid-19 was first detected last week in South Africa and has since spread to dozens of other countries.
The new variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on 24 November 2021, and was named during a WHO meeting which took place on Friday November 25, bringing together scientists to assess the new variant.
Although many initially linked its origin to South Africa, scientists say that the earliest sample shows that the variant was collected in Botswana on November 11.
Rwanda hasn’t recorded any single case of the new variant, but Rwanda Biomedical Centre warned citizens about the variant and encouraged them to continue taking Covid-19 precautionary measures.
Scientists in South Africa detected the lineage on Monday, according to the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and rang the alarm bell for the world.
Researchers in Botswana and Hong Kong also posted sequences publicly, and other cases have since been reported in Belgium and Israel.
According to WHO, this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning, and it’s said to be more infectious than the Delta, which swept through the world months ago.
Symptoms from the new variant
Dr Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first spotted the new Covid variant Omicron, talking to BBC said that the patients seen so far have had extremely mild symptoms, but more time is needed before they know the seriousness of the disease for vulnerable people.
She said she was first alerted to the possibility of a new variant when patients in her busy private practice in the capital Pretoria started to come in earlier this month with Covid-19 symptoms that did not make immediate sense.
They included young people of different backgrounds and ethnicities with intense fatigue and a six-year-old child with a very high pulse rate, she said. None suffered from a loss of taste or smell.
Is the virus spreading at a high rate?
According to WHO, it is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta.
A statement from the global health body states that the number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiologic studies are underway to understand if it is because of Omicron or other factors.
How effective are vaccines against the variant?
WHO reported that it is working with technical partners to understand the potential impact of this variant and its own existing counter measures, including vaccines.
"Vaccines remain critical to reducing severe disease and death, including against the dominant circulating variant, Delta. Current vaccines remain effective against severe disease and death,” reads a statement by WHO.
Ways to protect ourselves from Omicron
As Omicron has been declared a ‘variant of concern’, there are several actions WHO recommends countries to undertake.
Current measures to avoid it include - enhancing surveillance and sequencing of cases, sharing genome sequences on publicly available databases such as GISAID, reporting initial cases or clusters to WHO, performing field investigations and laboratory assessments to better understand if Omicron has different transmission or disease characteristics.
Measures taken by Rwanda
As a result of the outbreak of omicron, president of Rwanda Paul Kagame chaired an extraordinary cabinet meeting that set various measures to mitigate the spread of the new variant.
Rwanda has temporarily banned direct flights between Kigali and the southern African region as part of the new measures to control the Omicron variant of Covid-19 from spreading into the country.
The Ministry of Health has imposed seven-day mandatory quarantine for passengers arriving from nine Southern African countries in the wake of the emergence of Covid-19 Omicron variant.
All travellers arriving in Rwanda are required to quarantine in designated hotels for 24 hours.