Health Promotions Officer within the Ministry of Health, Ms. Shanika John earlier this week, provided details on what Vincentians can expect from the Omicron variant of COVID-19, explaining what makes it differ from earlier variants.
Ms. John starts by discussing the shortened incubation period of this new strain of the COVID-19 virus and what sort of impact it will have on infected persons.
“With this new variant of concern, what are we most likely to see? One, we are most likely to see to see that the incubation period of the virus is much shorter, which means people are going to get sick much faster. Before, the normal strain of the virus would probably take about five to seven days; the delta virus will take about three to four days, for this particular variant, it’s going to be a shorter incubation period which means people are going to get sick quicker, and it’s going to be sick where you are actually symptomatic, so we expect to see more symptomatic persons.” She said.
The Ministry’s Health Promotions Officer then goes on to speak about the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant.
“In terms of the transmission of it, it’s going to be extremely mild. So expect that people are going to get sick but they’re going to be mild cases of the variant. What we are concerned about in the ministry of health is that because our vaccination rate is extremely low, the severity of the transmission, increase in hospitalization that could ultimately lead to death, which has always been our concern.” She said.
The Health Promotions Officer encouraged all those who haven’t been vaccinated to get vaccinated, and to those who have already been vaccinated for some time, she recommended that they get a booster shot.
