Malawi allays fears on new Omicron variant

Health authorities in the country have allayed fears of a new Omicron variant of Covid-19 classified as XBB.1.5 stating it is mild and stated that Ministry of Health is on high alert.

In an interview yesterday, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences professor of epidemiology Adamson Muula said while the new variant is transmissible, Malawians should not panic as it does not cause serious health consequences.

He was responding to an inquiry from The Nation against the background of a new Omicron variant which the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified as a variant of concern (VOC) and has been detected in South Africa with one person getting infected.

Following detection of the variant, South Africa’s Department of Health said in a statement on Monday that the department is consulting with scientists to gather more information on its severity and transmissibility.

The department has since asked South Africans to observe prevention measures such as wearing face masks, avoiding overcrowded places, keeping social distance, washing hands with soap and ensuring they get vaccinated including boosters.

But while admitting that people have reason to be worried about new variants reported in other countries, Muula stressed the need for continued surveillance on the premise that new variants will keep emerging.

He said: “The good thing is that although the Omicron strain appears to be very transmissible it is also the case that it often results in mild and in some cases, no illness at all.

“People who have had infection with the other strains or were vaccinated have some protection already. I believe the government is watching this closely and the trigger point for severe public health actions should be hospitalisations and not just infections.”

Muula suggested that stringent measures should be on standby in case Malawi reports the variant.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrain Chikumbe yesterday said the country is stepping up efforts following detection of the variant in South Africa.

He said this is due to the fact that there is a lot of interaction between Malawi and South Africa through frequent travel.

Chikumbe said: “We are, therefore, stepping up our surveillance system to be able to detect the new variant should it be imported into the country. We have the capacity to isolate the different variants of the virus through our genomic sequencing tests that we randomly do.”

In terms of preparedness against the new variant, he said the preventive measures remain the same regardless of the type of variant that can emerge.

Chikumbe also agreed with Muula that while the new variant is reported to be more infectious than other variants, it remains relatively less lethal and less aggressive as compared to the delta and beta variants.

He further said the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Cholera is monitoring the situation locally, regionally and globally.

The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) states that the XBB.1.5 variant, which is now accounting for 28 percent of United States Covid-19 cases, has its prevalence on the rise globally.

According to the CDC the XBB.1.5 variant may not cause a big surge in infections or hospitalisations in many countries due to high immunity built up from exposure to earlier waves of Covid-19 vaccinations, especially recent boosters for individuals most at risk of the severe disease.

The CDC further states that symptoms of the new variant are similar to previous Omicron variants and resemble cold-like symptoms such as running nose, sore throat, cough and congestion.

Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Cholera co-chairperson Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma told The Nation last week that vaccines used against the Omicron variant in the past one and a half years are still effective against the new variant.

Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases due to the new variant, the task force, among others, is promoting Covid-19 vaccinations including boosters to increase immunity levels as well as encouraging preventive measures.

Threats of the new variant come at a time when Malawi is struggling to contain an outbreak of cholera which as of Monday killed 716 people.