A renowned virologist predicts Omicron will be the dominant variant of COVID-19 worldwide in a few months and Thailand may face its 5th wave of the disease after the New Year holiday.
Prof Dr Yong Poovorawan, chief of the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University, said the country already experienced four waves of COVID-19 in 2021.
He said that his center found 40-50 Omicron cases out of 96 cases it received for examination. The rate showed that the Omicron variant spread fast. Without public cooperation on disease control, caseloads would soar and the country would face the 5th COVID-19 wave after the New Year holiday, he warned.
Prof Dr Yong said that the Omicron could avoid antibodies and most Omicron cases had been fully vaccinated. However, hospital admission was low among them compared with Delta cases, showing that Omicron was less severe than Delta, he said. He did not determine whether the less severity resulted from vaccination or the nature of the Omicron variant.
To cope with Omicron, people needed their third and booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine without having to wait six months after the second shot. Antibodies would be high in the first three months after inoculation and start to decline afterwards, he said.
Antibodies would increase by 100 times and 200 times with the third shot being viral vector and mRNA vaccines respectively, Prof Dr Yong said. (TNA)
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