First Cases of Omicron Reported in South Korea
The omicron is here:
The first suspected cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected in South Korea, health authorities said Tuesday, as the nation tightened its entry restrictions for the African region to prevent it from spreading into the country.
Health authorities have conducted a genome sequencing test on a couple who recently arrived in South Korea from Nigeria and the couple’s acquaintance. They tested positive for COVID-19.
The authorities expected the result to be announced after 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The couple, who were fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine, visited Nigeria on Nov. 14-23 and tested positive for COVID-19 last Thursday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but did the health authorities have to give this latest mutation such an ominous sounding name? Additionally the initial reports out of Africa are stating the symptoms from this new variant are very mild and the hospitals there are not swamped with COVID patients.
YAWN!
The jury is still out on this variant of COVID on the older population in developed countries, as opposed to the younger population in Africa. We should know pretty soon how much more deadly this strain is, in the coming days.
but did the health authorities have to give this latest mutation such an ominous sounding name?
@GIKorea
According to the Greek alphabet, after Lambda, the new variant should have been called Nu. But that would have sounded like ‘new’ and may have caused confusion. The next letter after Nu is Xi, and we know what would happen if that mutation was named Xi.
So apparently, because of the above, WHO skipped two letters and named the latest mutation Omicron.