Singing River Health System preparing for new omicron COVID variant

Singing River health care professionals tell News 25 how they’ve prepared for the new omicron variant of COVID-19 to keep Gulf Coast residents healthy.

Most research about the omicron variant comes from studies in South Africa where almost 100 percent of COVID cases contain the new variant.

Symptoms for the omicron variant are similar to those of the Delta and Alpha variant, cases reported from South Africa and in the states have had mild symptoms, not requiring patients to be hospitalized.

When Singing River first heard about the Omicron variant coming out, they prepared by continuing the push to get residents vaccinated.

There is also a high infection rate, so although a patient may have had COVID before that immunity does not prevent them from being reinfected with the omicron variant. Singing River Health System Clinical Pharmacist Chris Ayers said, “It appears that it has more mutations within the variant, which can make it a little more easily to evade, everything from natural immunity to hopefully not vaccines, but certainly the more mutations and the further you get away from the original source, the more concerning it becomes. Mostly mild symptoms so while it appears to be highly transmissible maybe even more so than the other variants that we’ve seen it does not appear to be any more virulent or deadly.”

For more information about the new variant Singing River Health System’s Facebook page is always open to answering questions.