The South African doctor who first alerted authorities to the presence of the COVID-19 omicron variant reported that it presents “unusual but mild” symptoms.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a board member of the South African Medical Association, first noticed otherwise healthy patients demonstrating unusual symptoms on Nov. 18.
“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” Coetzee told The Telegraph.
Coetzee started briefing other African medical associations on Saturday, discussing the variety of symptoms, such as “one very interesting case” of a six-year-old child with a fever and “very high pulse rate.”
“What we have to worry about now is that when older, unvaccinated people are infected with the new variant, and if they are not vaccinated, we are going to see many people with a severe [form of the] disease,” Coetzee said.
So far, the hospitals are not yet overburdened.
Coetzee’s advisement follows a report by Tulio de Oliveira, the director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation.
Busy day on B.1.1.529 – a variant of great concern – The world should provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it! By protecting and supporting it, we will protect the world! A plea for billionaires and financial institutions. 1/8 tweets
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) November 25, 2021
Oliveira told reporters the virus has a “very unusual constellation of mutations,” most notably 10 variants on a key protein that helps the virus infect humans compared to the delta variant’s two mutations and the beta variant’s three mutations.
He criticized several countries – including the U.S., U.K., South Korea and various countries in Europe – for enacting travel restrictions on South Africa and several other African nations.
“The world should provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it!” Oliveira tweeted. “By protecting and supporting it, we will protect the world!”