The number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has reached 151 in Northern Ireland. If it appears that for example, Omicron has similar severity to Delta in terms of risks of hospital admission, then the consequences of a very large wave of cases occurring rapidly should be apparent to everybody in terms of the likely hospital pressures." "If those cases don't lead to much in terms of hospital admissions, then the case for restrictions becomes much less.
"The situation is moving really rapidly and people are likely to be surprised by the speed at which Omicron cases will increase. "This is a very concerning situation and one that we are worried about and need to keep an extremely close eye on. The most importance of those is the severity of infection and the extent which it leads to hospital admission and serious disease. "There are some significant levels of uncertainty which remain. It's probably going to become the dominant form of the virus before the end of this year, possibly earlier than that.
"As a result of that, we'll see increasing case numbers of the Omicron virus and they're likely to increase very rapidly. It is inevitable that we are going to see the same thing in Northern Ireland. The doubling time for cases is around two days in both England and Scotland. "If we look at that is happening elsewhere in the UK and internationally, we see that once Omicron becomes established, it spreads remarkably quickly. "We know that previous immunity, whether from natural infection with Delta, or from vaccination, gives somewhat less protection against Omicron. "It is probably around two and a half times more transmissible than the Delta form of the virus," Professor Young said. Ian Young told the Covid media briefing "unfortunately Omicron presents a new threat" as they know that it is significantly more transmissible. "We need to get as many people boosted, as we possibly can before we see the peak of the Omicron wave." Until we know that information, I would ask the public to exercise caution and follow all of the advice. We still don't have some key elements of information but I have to say, I am more concerned at this stage than I have been at any stage in the pandemic. "There's cause for very significant concern at this time. We are likely to see a very significant increase in cases of Omicron in the run up to Christmas, that's not unexpected and I think we will see that reflected in reports over the coming days. Soon it will become dominant in Northern Ireland.
"What we will be doing is keeping the situation under very close review, looking at what's happening in neighbouring jurisdictions and providing the best advice that we can to the Executive to control this wave of Omicron which is coming towards us."ĭr Michael McBride added: "The new variant of Covid-19, Omicron, is highly infectious and is spreading very fast.