And like we mentioned earlier, Omicron may still be the most dominant variant but Delta is still out and about. And even after Omicron subsides, that won't be the end just yet. Dr Manzanero explained that viruses mutate and something else just may be coming our way.
Dr. Russell Manzanero, Medical Epidemiologist, MOH
"In the region, the variants for covid pretty much is similar to what we have here. I mean we never got over Delta, we still have cases. Those are here, just that now Omicron seems to be the most dominating strain. In December 80% of those samples were Omicron and the rest were a mix of Delta, Alpha - so that's still there. At this point we are seeing that those numbers are closer to 90% more now are Omicron, so that's what we are seeing even in the neighbouring countries. When you look at Europe and the US, this is pretty much the same way how we are looking at the variants. The variants never left, its there. Its just that one is dominating the other. Omicron in itself like I mentioned before the virus is trying to adapt and getting into the population and the way it does that is to find a way that it might be more transmissible or more virulent, it can cause severity. In this case Omicron seems to be more transmissible and spreads very fast, so that the nature of Omicron."
"You did mention about another variant, actually its not a variant. When Omicron came out there were actually 3 to Omicron; the BA1, BA2 and BA3 - what we are seeing is the BA1, the Omicron, but we are also starting to see cases of BA2. We have not been able to determine that in Belize, but what you are seeing in other areas are reported Omicron that is there. Again, with the BA2, it seems to be a milder form of the original strain, so yes, it is there. For us in Belize we do have the capacity to detect that particular variant as well."
