With more transmissible forms of the coronavirus causing case numbers to rise in some countries, experts have said that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over.
The BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been blamed for a rise in cases in April and May in South Africa, the country where they were first identified.
Now, they are threatening to have a similar effect in many other nations as they outcompete other forms of Omicron.
The concerns over a new wave of cases comes at a time when a study was released this week indicating that the Omicron variant is better able to evade immunity caused by previous coronavirus infections.
It means people who caught Covid during the first wave would receive no boost to their immune response if they subsequently catch Omicron.
Having had Omicron doesn’t stop you [from] having it again, which suggests people might get repeated infections
Dr Andrew Freedman,
Cardiff University
Scientists at Imperial College London, who studied triple-vaccinated people, further found that an Omicron infection offered little protection to catching it again, and that the variant was "not a good booster of immunity".
“Having had Omicron doesn’t stop you [from] having it again, which suggests people might get repeated infections,” said Dr Andrew Freedman, an expert in infectious diseases at Cardiff University in the UK.
“Omicron is a weaker virus or less severe. It will probably increase in the winter. The big unknown is whether we will get a variant that is as transmissible but more virulent.”
In an online briefing document published this week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said the growth advantage for BA.4 and BA.5 — compared with the dominant Omicron variant, BA.2 — was “probably due to their ability to evade immune protection against infection induced by prior infection and/or vaccination”.
The organisation said that “countries should remain vigilant for signals of BA. 4 and BA. 5 emergence and spread”.
While BA.4 and BA.5 caused a rise in case numbers in South Africa during April and May, the peak was much smaller than the country’s previous four waves of Covid-19 infections. The increase in deaths was also much less severe.
In South Africa, it appeared to be the case that hospital admissions associated with Covid-19 increased simultaneously with infections, said Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia.
“Normally, hospitalisations peak about two weeks after the peak in infection,” he said. “If they peak together, most of these hospitalisations are people going into hospital with Covid, not because of Covid.
“There wasn’t much indication BA.4 and BA.5 were causing much hospitalisations because of Covid.”
15 most-recovered tourism markets: in pictures
BA.5 was blamed for a surge in cases in Portugal in May in which there was also an increase in the number of deaths in the country, although this was smaller than previous peaks.
The UK, for example, is probably “at the start of another wave”, Dr Hunter said, most likely driven by BA.4 and BA.5. There are concerns that other countries may experience the same as a result of the easily transmitted forms of the coronavirus.
“The growth advantage reported for BA.4 and BA.5 suggest that these variants will become dominant in the whole European Union/European Economic Area, probably resulting in an increase in Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks,” the ECDC briefing document said.
Although case numbers are at risk of increasing because of BA.4 and BA.5, Dr Hunter said he did not think tougher control measures were necessary.
“Most of these infection-control measures, as has been known for decades, only delay infections,” he said. “Going into lockdown won’t actually prevent infections; it will just delay them.
“Sometimes, delaying infections is what you need if you have got a vaccine coming.”
The risk of delaying infections now, he said, was that it would delay them until people’s immunity from previous vaccination had waned.
The exception lies with people who are particularly vulnerable, who he said were advised to continue to wear a mask, as this could, for example, reduce the severity of disease if they became infected.
Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter, said the new wave in infections meant people should ensure they were fully vaccinated.
It may also require, he suggested, tweaks to the vaccines to take account of the emerging forms of coronavirus.
“Covid is a lot more dangerous than flu, full stop,” Dr Pankhania said. “Covid has been more dangerous by many magnitudes. There is no comparison.”
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Brief scores:
Toss: Northern Warriors, elected to field first
Bengal Tigers 130-1 (10 ov)
Roy 60 not out, Rutherford 47 not out
Northern Warriors 94-7 (10 ov)
Simmons 44; Yamin 4-4
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
Palestine and Israel - live updates
NBA Finals results
Game 1: Warriors 124, Cavaliers 114
Game 2: Warriors 122, Cavaliers 103
Game 3: Cavaliers 102, Warriors 110
Game 4: In Cleveland, Sunday (Monday morning UAE)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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