(30 November 2021) Omicron — the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the WHO by South Africa on November 24 — is spreading around the globe. According to GISAID data, as of November 30th Omicron had been detected in 17 countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Brazil and ten European countries. Little is known about the new COVID-19 variant's contagiousness yet, but countries are already racing to contain its spread.

  • The first known confirmed Omicron infection was from a specimen collected on November 9th, 2021, which suggests that Omicron may already have spread around the globe. As of now, daily COVID statistics for countries with identified Omicron cases don't reveal a pattern of extra upsurges in coronavirus cases or deaths.
  • Omicron has more mutations (50, including 32 in the spike protein) than past SARS-CoV-2 variants, some of which potentially makes the Omicron variant more contagious. It is not yet known how effective the existing COVID vaccines are against Omicron.
  • To prevent the spread of Omicron, many countries have enacted new travel restrictions.
  • The fears of a possible economic global slowdown because of the new COVID variant caused stock markets to drop on Friday, Nov. 26. The same day, the price of crude oil dropped by 12%. While there was an immediate dip after the variant was announced, markets were demonstrating signs of partial recovery on Monday, Nov. 29.

Coronavirus Data and Insights

Live data and insights on Coronavirus around the world, including detailed statistics for the US, EU, and China — confirmed and recovered cases, deaths, alternative data on economic activities, customer behavior, supply chains, and more.

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