COVID-19 Omicron Variant: What Alabamians Should Know

BIRMINGHAM, AL — South African scientists have identified a new version of the coronavirus this week that they say is behind a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in Gauteng, the country's most populous province.

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo of the University of Alabama at Birmingham spoke Monday morning on the findings of the new variant, and said "there is lots to learn" about the omicron variant.

"In the next week or so, we should learn more from laboratory work about whether the antibodies people get when they get vaccinated will protect them from infection from this new variant," Marrazzo said. "In the meantime, all we can say is to be cautious and continue to get vaccinated if you haven't been, get your booster shot if you have not already."

Related: New COVID-19 Variant In South Africa: Explainer

Cases of the new variant have been reported in Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, Britain and other countries. The U.S. and dozens of other countries now have bans on travel from South Africa and seven other southern African countries. A state of emergency was issued for New York Friday in response to the variant's discovery.

The restrictions could buy the U.S. some time to boost vaccination rates and roll out other possible interventions, officials said.

Health minister Joe Phaahla said the variant was linked to an "exponential rise" of cases in the last few days, although experts are still trying to determine if the new variant — named B.1.1.529 — is actually responsible.

Marrazzo said South Africa's lack of access to the COVID-19 vaccine could account for the significant spike in the new variant. "Less than 20 percent of people are vaccinated in South Africa, and one of the reasons people think South Africa was a site of emergence of the variant is that is has not had access to vaccines the way that we have in the United States," she said.

From just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks, South Africa saw the number of new daily cases rocket to 2,465 on Thursday. Struggling to explain the sudden rise in cases, scientists studied virus samples from the outbreak and discovered the new variant, which appears to have a high number of mutations — a factor could allow it to spread faster, scientists with the University of Cambridge said.

Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, described the variant as "the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen." He said it was concerning that although the variant was only being detected in low levels in parts of South Africa, "it looks like it's spreading rapidly."

So far, there is no indication the variant causes more-severe disease. South African experts said that, as with other variants, some infected people don't have any symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed that federal health officials are better-prepared to battle a surge of the omicron variant than it was a year ago when the delta variant arrived, noting that the CDC has launched a new surveillance system to specifically track the omicron variant.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.