Dr Brink: "This is the most significant variant we have encountered"

Saturday 27 November 2021

Scientists warn that it is only a matter of time before Britain has its first case of 'Omicron' - a new variant of covid-19 which has more mutations than previous variants and is feared to be harder to tackle.

The first known case of Omicron was identified in Southern Africa a little over two weeks ago. Europe discovered its first case yesterday - in a person in Belgium who is believed to have acquired the virus in Egypt.

Dr Nicola Brink, Guernsey's Director of Public Health, said: “This is the most significant variant we have encountered to date; because of this, urgent work is underway to learn more about its transmissibility, severity of illness and vaccine-susceptibility.

“It has an unusually high number of mutations and the assignation as a VUI [variant under investigation] means the potential impact of this variant will be investigated urgently.”

Dr Brink also reassured islanders that the Bailiwick is well placed to identify any cases of the new variant which may emerge locally.

“We are particularly fortunate that the UK is a global leader in sequencing and so are well placed to detect infections in any in-coming travellers,” she said.

“Furthermore, we also have our own sequencing capacity on-island and regularly sequence...from any incoming traveller. We are also going further and are contacting people who have travelled recently to the countries on the red list and asking them to come forward for testing and isolate until they have a negative result."

Yes that is correct. And if we get any cases in travellers we will be sequencing urgently. The team are on standby over the weekend and will come in if we need them. Thank you to the States Analytical team and @Gsy_Bell

— Nicola Brink MBE (@DrNicolaBrink) November 26, 2021

Pictured: Staff at the States' Analytical Laboratory are on standby this weekend in case they are needed to sequence cases of covid-19 in people entering the island.

The discovery of Omicron - also known as variant B.1.1.529 - has led Guernsey and many other jurisdictions to add several countries in Southern Africa to the red list - which means the most stringent travel restrictions. They include South Africa, Lesotho, and Namibia.

No cases of Omicron have been discovered in the UK yet. But one of South Africa's leading epidemiologists, Salim Abdool Karim, said he would already "expect it to be in the UK". Dr Jeffrey Barrett, who leads a covid-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute outside Cambridge, said it was “probably right that it’s a case of buying time because of past experience”.

Omicron has been identified at an earlier stage of its development than the Delta variant which is currently the dominant strain of covid-19. Dr Barrett said that because of this "there might be some hope for some amount of containment or for that time-buying phase to be longer”.

Pictured: Dr Nicola Brink, Director of Public Health, said: “For me this is an important reminder to everyone that living responsibly with covid does not mean treating this pandemic as if it is over."

The latest testing figures released by the States show that the Bailiwick has 747 active known cases of covid-19. This is slightly fewer than the highest daily total, which was recorded earlier this week. However, nearly 300 people are awaiting results of PCR tests. 

On Friday, the Chairman of the Civil Contingencies Authority, Deputy Peter Ferbrache, emerged from 10 days in self-isolation with covid-19 and countered rumours which he said he had been told were circulating that the island would soon enter a third major lockdown. He said such rumours were "completely unfounded" and that another lockdown had not even been considered by the Authority.