Omicron found in the UK [title edited by MNHQ]

[manolantern]

Health Secretary has just said two cases have been found here. That was quick!

Not at all surprising! It'll be interesting to know if the people have direct travel links to SA or if it's been community spread.

Welcome to globalization.

Inevitable really.

Wonder what it will mean for us in reality. Worrying.

Just seen it too. It was to be expected tbh.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-two-cases-of-omicron-variant-detected-in-uk-with-targeted-testing-to-be-rolled-out-in-affected-areas-12480213

Plan B anyone?

It was inevitable. We just need to know whether higher transmissibility (SA cases quadrupled in 2 weeks) goes with higher fatality (numerous spike mutations might mean the vaccines don't work/work as effectively)

They have found 60 in Germany. We must have lots more than 2 with all the flights into Heathrow from that region

Given the uptick in cases in recent days, and the theory that it's more transmissible than Delta, I would guess it's been here for a while already.

Was waiting for this thread. Not a huge surprise is it? Chelmsford and Nottingham apparently.

No surprise. I was talking to my sister yesterday; she mentioned they'd stopped flights etc. to stop it coming over and my reply was: 'Trust me, it's already here.'

If it’s in many other countries it’ll be here

Let’s hope Sir Andrew Pollard is right 🤞

Yup, if there are flights in and out of SA to/from your country then by the time we heard about this, it was too late.

There'll be a vaccine in a 100 days apparently. I'll have it. I do understand that people are sick of waiting for the next vaccine but if it's available I'll have it.

I am so sick of it though.

In hindsight we’re going to wonder why we didn’t implement plan B at this point if they don’t do it this weekend.

Not surprised at all.

Not surprising!

Let’s hope the scientists can find out as much about Omicron and quickly!

Booster uptake needs to be ramped up.

It was inevitable it would be, given the volume of international travel.

I'm cautious but not panicking. We don't know enough about how this variant acts generally, let alone about how it will act in a population with a high level of vaccination uptake and a relatively high level of previous delta infection.

Maybe it is something to panic about, maybe not. We really don't know at the moment. It's probably better to be overly cautious than too relaxed, just in case, but I'm not going to start changing my behaviour yet.

This is no surprise really, it’s probably everywhere.

SA virology facilities are some of the best in the world. Just because they found it there does not mean it's necessarily come from there. It just means they found and sequenced it first.

Well that didn't take long did it?

There’s pretty much no restrictions anymore, of course it’s here. And there will be MANY more than 2 cases.

@Incognito22333

They have found 60 in Germany. We must have lots more than 2 with all the flights into Heathrow from that region

The 61 cases on a KLM flight from SA are in the Netherlands and they don’t know yet if they are of the new variant or not, they are sequencing the results now. There has been one reported case in Belgium and one in Germany.

Meh it will be another version in a month. I'm past caring. I am being sensible but I'm not putting my life on hold ever again.

Crap.

Not surprised though. Inevitable.