According, to the WHO, during the week of January 24 to January 30, the global number of new weekly cases remained stable with a 4% increase (over 22 million new cases) while deaths increased by 18% (over 59,000 new deaths reported).
In Africa there was a decrease in deaths, in Western Pacific no change but in other WHO regions (Americas, EMRO, Europe and Asia) deaths increased. Source: BlueDot.
A study on boosters from Israel by Bar-On et al: A 4th Pfizer dose led to 75% reduction (i.e. down to a quarter) of the risk of severe COVID.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.22270232v1.full.pdf
And another one on effectiveness of boosters – Pagliari et al: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4016530
CDC report on booster protection in LA county, by Danza et al: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7105e1.htm?s_cid=mm7105e1_w
During both Delta and Omicron predominance, incidence and hospitalization rates were highest among unvaccinated persons and lowest among vaccinated persons with a booster. During Omicron predominance, COVID-19 hospitalization rates in Los Angeles County among unvaccinated persons were 23.0 times, those of fully vaccinated persons with a booster, and 5.3 times, those among fully vaccinated persons without a booster.
Highly conserved CELLULAR (non-antibody) immunity to omicron from vaccination: Liu J et al in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04465-y_reference.pdf
Hayek et al: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm3087. This article finds that having vaccinated parents confers protection (60-70% reduction, if two parents) on the children in the same household.
And a study showing neonates of mothers vaccinated during pregnancy, are born with some anti-spike protein antibodies thus gaining protection from the mother’s vaccination – Shook et al: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788986
On the other hand, obstetric complications are worse and more severe in mothers who experience COVID-19 during pregnancy – Metz et al: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788985
A reasonably detailed but clear WHO “EPI-WIN” briefing on Omicron (one hour) is available to watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Qymcc03v0&t=6s
On Omicron in the context of human immunity, a very good article was published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00214-3
A more speculative press article relating to future variants, is interesting: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/coronavirus-variant-after-omicro/621404/
Many governments have imposed additional travel restrictions in an attempt to stop or delay the spread of the Omicron variant. There is growing evidence that such restrictions are ineffective (beyond a few days), as presented in a recent privately commissioned ACI/IATA study undertaken by Oxera in Italy and Finland.
There is an announcement (31 January) on “Health Master List” from ICAO as a tool to facilitate verified COVID-related travel documentation, here: New ICAO Health Master List boosts efficiency and security of health document authentication for travelers and border authorities.
Best wishes,
David Powell
IATA Medical Advisor