New Variant: Concerns Mount About Increased Transmission

First there was the party at the Oslo restaurant that resulted in 80 out of 111 guests catching Covid, mostly the Omicron variant, despite being doubly vaccinated and having tested negative before attending. Then came the seven German tourists who all travelled together to South Africa and caught Omicron, despite having received a Pfizer booster.

- Helen Pidd

In recent days, anecdotal reports suggested an increasing number of possible Omicron outbreaks at social gatherings in the UK, too. The broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire tweeted that her brother had caught Covid three or four weeks after his booster following a night out with a load of mates” on 3 December. All were vaccinated and 17 out of 21 tested positive, she said.

Although official data has yet to confirm the trend, concerns are mounting about the impact of increased transmissibility, including among fully vaccinated people, even if most are reporting relatively mild symptoms.