New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Omicron has crippled several European countries, including the United Kingdom (UK) and France, which has forced them to reimpose restrictions such as partial lockdowns and night curfews to contain the spread. Dubbed as a 'variant of concern' by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Omicron is said to be more contagious than the Delta strain. Though it is less deadly than other COVID-19 strains, it needs to be seen whether Omicron can evade vaccines or not.

While countries try to check Omicron's spread, one question that has left scientists and researchers baffled is why and how the new strain of COVID-19 - which was detected first in South Africa last month - spreads so quickly. Explaining this, WHO Executive Director of health emergencies programme Dr Mike Ryan said that Omicron's transmissibility is higher "due to a change in the spike protein".

"The Omicron variant has a change in its genetic sequence that has changed the shape and the ability of the spike protein to enter human cells and that's probably giving it its transmission advantage," Dr Ryan said. "We don't know fully yet."

WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kherkhove also expressed concerns over the Omicron surge and said that the new variant is growing rapidly in countries where it has been detected. Kherkhove further said that Omicron cases will rise with increased transmissibility.

"There are some studies that are underway that are looking at comparisons of Omicron versus Delta," Kherkhove said. "There are some early studies from the UK that have looked at secondary transmission. Looking at higher secondary transmission as compared to Delta but again it’s still early."

Omicron so far has been detected in 94 countries across the world. In India, over 100 cases of the infection have been reported till now. On Friday, the Union Health Ministry advised people to avoid non-essential travel and keep New Year celebrations low-key.

"As the Omicron variant is spreading very fast across Europe and most parts of the world, there is a need to avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings and keep festivities low-key. New Year celebrations have to be low-key," ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said.