Omicron overtakes Delta as predominant strain - MoH

The newly isolated Omicron variant has overtaken the Delta Variant as the predominant strain in the country.

A genomic sequencing conducted by local laboratories on Friday last week found that all the samples tested were of the new variant.

Tests that had been conducted 10 days earlier had found 76 per cent of the samples to be the Omicron variant with the Delta variant accounting for 18 per cent of the samples.

The highly transmissible variant has sparked fears of another deadly wave of infections signaling that the fight against the pandemic is far from over.

“It is based on the fact that it has high transmissibility due to the constellation of mutations that the variant exhibits and its gene platform that made it to be classified as a variant of concern,” Ag Health DG Patrick Amoth said.

“When the omicron variant was detected in South Africa we also enhanced our surveillance system at the port of entry especially at JKIA because of international travel but equally at all points of entry and also at community and facility level,”Amoth added.

The heavily mutated Omicron Covid variant was isolated last week by scientists in South Africa and has been listed as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation based on advice from the Technical Advisory Group on the virus evolution.

Similarly, the ministry has raised concern of higher disease and hospitalization rate among Kenyans yet to be vaccinated as infections and positivity rate continue to fluctuate between 20 per cent and 30 per cent in the past one week.

For instance, out of the 15 people that were admitted in various critical care units in the country on Wednesday, 10 were not vaccinated.

This means that the unvaccinated people account for more than 67 per cent of hospitalization as a result of Covid-19.

 “We are confident that if we had more of our people vaccinated it would be possible to still manage our situation as many would escape severe disease despite getting infected,” Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said.

“With the increase in infections following the onset of omicron variant, we still find those vaccinated performing better against the disease. This means we need all adult in the country vaccinated in the shortest time possible to ensure we have many people protected against severe disease,” she added.

With the December holidays here, the ministry has admitted that the rise in the cases might be a sign that the containment measures in place have to be adhered to but noted that it is still too early to decide on further stringent measures.

The ministry has however imposed more stringent measures to ensure the cases of the virus are put under check.

Kenyans will now be required to show proof of vaccination when seeking services in government offices, boarding planes, SGR, visiting banks, shopping malls, in hotels and pubs as well as organized events like conferences and weddings.

Those establishments that will fail to comply with the directives will have their licenses revoked.