All 44 cases of the omicron variant recorded by the European Union are “asymptomatic or people with mild symptoms,” according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The EU has so far recorded 44 confirmed cases in 11 European countries.
“So far, no severe cases or deaths have been reported among these cases,” the ECDC declared, in an update on the variant based on information from public sources. It comes as various countries the world over have imposed fresh restrictions.
In England, new Covid rules on self-isolation have been enshrined in law until March, prompting criticism from business leaders who described the new rules as “massively disproportionate,” while travel agencies labelled the restrictions a “huge blow” for their industry. Tory MPs, meanwhile, warned Boris Johnson that restricting freedoms was a path “towards hell”.
The new UK regulations force people to isolate for ten days if they come unto contact with someone who has the omicron variant or risk a hefty fine of up to £10,000 – regardless of being fully vaccinated – and will not expire until 24 March, under legislation passed by the Commons on Tuesday.
Here in Ireland, restrictions have also been ramped up, with the government announcing this week that face masks must be worn from third class up. It’s a decision that has been met with upset, with many parents vowing not to send their children to school.
Earlier this week, Gript reported that the National Parents Council Primary issued a caution that the mandate would prompt “a lot of families” to keep their children away from school. The reaction followed the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) recommendation to the Government that children aged nine or over should wear face masks in school and indoor settings. Wasting no time, the Government announced on Tuesday that face coverings will now be made mandatory for children aged nine and up.
Áine Lynch, National Parents Council Primary chief executive, told the Irish Times said the group received more than 700 contacts from parents within hours of Nphet’s recommendations being reported.
“There are a lot of parents saying they won’t send their children to school,” she said.
The Children’s Rights Alliance, warned that parents were concerned that face masks could cause issues for children, especially those with autism, learning difficulties or health issues such as asthma.
“This means that some children will find it difficult or indeed impossible to wear a mask in school,” said Chief Executive Tanya Ward.
Over the weekend, a parent of a profoundly deaf son. Margaret Byrne said that the impact of NPHET’s mask mandate on deaf children was breaking her heart, and the hearts of many other families of children with additional needs.She wrote:
“We are all distraught by this latest development. Our children, at least those who are aware of the news, are profoundly anxious and worried.
“I have no doubt that the impact of the new mask requirement will be extremely detrimental to my son’s educational and social wellbeing. This is because it is critically important for him and other deaf children to have full visual access to a person’s lips and face when they are communicating with them.”
In addition, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly advised against children’s social gatherings outside of school, including Christmas pantomimes, playdates, birthday parties and sleepovers. In contrast, Boris Johnson urged people in the UK not to cancel Christmas parties or nativity plays.
Mr Johnson insisted that he had already put in place a package of “balanced and proportionate measures” in response to the omicron variant. Asked whether parties and Nativity plays should be scrapped, Mr Johnson said: “We don’t want people to cancel such events and we think that, overwhelmingly, the best thing for kids is to be at school, as I have said many times throughout this pandemic.”
It comes as the South African doctor who reportedly first sounded the alarm on the Omicron variant, Dr Angelique Coetzee, said its symptoms are “unusual but mild” in healthy patients. Dr Coetzee, a practising doctor for 30 years, said that the symptoms she had witnessed included extreme fatigue.
Speaking of the patients she had treated with the omicron variant, she told The Telegraph:
“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before.”
Despite concerns from health experts, including Dr. Coetzee, that the variant could be more harmful to the elderly, some have questioned calls for booster jabs to be pushed for 18-year-olds in response to the discovery of the new variant.
Some commenters have been slammed as ‘alarmists’ for attempting to cite South Africa’s relatively young population (with an average age of 27) in an effort to dispute findings by health chiefs that cases in the country have only been “mild”.
However, the claims from health experts appear to be backed up with a similar pattern now being observed in multiple countries.
In the UK, University of Oxford Professor Jim Naismith said that data from England and Scotland illustrated that mask mandates hadn’t had an impact on infection rates. Prof Naismith said that despite England dropping its mask mandate in July, whilst Scotland kept strict mask mandates in force, official data showed that this had “made no meaningful difference” to infection rates.
Prof Naismith added: “In both countries very high levels of prevalence have continued for months. Thus the new changes announced are unlikely to have much of an impact if Omicron does indeed spread rapidly.”