Tougher procedures for those infected with Omicron: The Ministry of Health announced that starting tomorrow (Thursday, December 9) a person who is positive for the Omicron variant – will be required to go into isolation for 14 days from the first test. This is 4 days more than the duration of his isolation is required whoever is infected with another variant.
A person who is found to be positive for Omicron will be entitled to a recovery certificate only on the condition that in the last 3 days of this period he did not have any symptoms that prevent the recovery certificate from being issued. It was further determined that a person defined as having a high blue suspicion in the Omicron variant would be defined as recovering with the approval of the district physician – provided that no paving results were obtained until the end of a 10-day recovery period.
“This update is applied in light of the suspicion that verified Omaricon variants may be contagious for a longer period than observed in cases of other variants,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Pfizer announced: A third dose of the vaccine provides protection against Omicron
Meanwhile, Pfizer today (Wednesday) officially announced that in order to protect against the new variant Omicron, a third booster dose must be vaccinated. The company also noted that if needed, they would be able to provide a customized vaccine against Omicron as early as March 2022.
The announcement was made following laboratory tests conducted by Pfizer together with Biontech, a partner in the production of the vaccine against Corona. A statement from both companies explained that the levels of antibodies in the body after receiving a second vaccine were significantly lower against Omicron, compared to the level of antibodies after receiving a third vaccine.
“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against a serious illness caused by the Omicron variant, it is clear from these preliminary data that the protection improves with the receipt of a third dose of our vaccine,” said Albert Burla, CEO of Pfizer. The first and booster is the best way to prevent the corona from spreading. “
The results of Pfizer’s experiment follow on from results from a preliminary study by scientists in South Africa published earlier. According to the South African study, blood tests of vaccines showed a large decrease, up to 40 times, in the ability of the antibodies from the vaccine to inhibit the spread of the variant in the body compared to the protection against the original corona virus. However, Professor Alex Siegel, who led the team that conducted the study, said that getting a booster, or an additional dose for recovering patients, could increase the effectiveness of the vaccine against the variant that is of great concern in the world.
The results also showed that the antibodies after two doses of vaccine were much less effective against omicron compared to the original corona virus. How less effective? Up to 40 times. It has also been found that omicron is much more elusive than other variants. The beta variant, for example, which was first detected a year ago in South Africa, was considered at the time to be one that could well evade the protection of the vaccine. However, current research suggests that omicron has an evasive capacity 5 to 10 times higher than beta.
