Edit: You can see a breakdown of their sequencing here (PDF link):
Cliffs: That 74% figure is for the whole of November. For Gauteng specifically it was at ~90% of sequences a fortnight ago and is currently at ~100% of sequences gleaned last week (much lower number). I’m unsure if there’s any selection bias going on (potential omicron canditates can be picked up prior via PCR test).
You can also see it being picked up in other regions (Western Cape being the most tested) as the month wears on. A lot less testing in these other regions though (as to be fair are cases).
Speaking to the Guardian from his home in Israel, where he is self-isolating, Maor also said he had probably infected a 69-year-old colleague with the virus after flying back from London. The colleague has since tested positive for the Omicron variant.
While he cannot be certain how or when he became infected, Maor, who had received three doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, is convinced it occurred in the UK. “I got the Omicron in London, for sure,” he said. “That is interesting because that was 10 days ago in London – really, really early.”
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A snap from Reuters reports that Omicron has been detected in the US state of California.
For days, U.S. health officials have said the new variant -first detected in South Africa and announced on Nov. 25 - was likely already in the United States as dozens of other countries also detected its arrival.
Still awating a confirmed US case, 9 days to ‘detect’ it not bad though.
US ‘Confirmed’ likely to be another ‘few’ days
The only point I made (til you twisted it) was that S-drop out to confirmed doesn’t usually take 7 days but this guy knew it would, before the samples were collected
So weird, the individual tested positive on November 29th and it was sequenced on December 1st. I was absolutely assured that the US was incapable of sequencing within 7 days.
seems like ‘dozens’ of ROW countries made you guys find a faster way. Congrats, it’s a big club you’re joining. North Korea and Uzbekistan next to find it.
It was responding to my post and me too. This isnt the first variant that was found, and we still dont really know whether this is a panic situation, although my gut says this one will have some impact based on everything we do know. My pessimism is largely just around my opinion we were gonna get crushed by delta this winter anyways, so any chance of making that worse is v bad.
