A sign about COVID-19 test is displayed at a testing site as people are seen inside for testing in Morton Grove, Illinois on Jan. 9, 2022. (NAM Y. HUH / AP)

WASHINGTON / HAVANA / MEXICO CITY - The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, unlike assumptions made in previous studies that it was more transmissible but less severe, a large study in the United States has found.

The studies that assumed that the Omicron variant was less severe were conducted in various places including South Africa, Scotland, England, and Canada, said the scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Minerva University and Harvard Medical School

"We found that the risks of hospitalization and mortality were nearly identical between periods," said four scientists who conducted the study based on records of 130,000 COVID-19 patients, referring to times in the past two years when different variants were dominant across the world.

The study, which is undergoing peer review at Nature Portfolio and was posted on Research Square on May 2, was adjusted for confounders including demographics, vaccination status, and the Charlson comorbidity index that predicts the risk of death within a year of hospitalization for patients with specific comorbid conditions.

The studies that assumed that the Omicron variant was less severe were conducted in various places including South Africa, Scotland, England, and Canada, said the scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Minerva University and Harvard Medical School.

They said their study could have several limitations, including the possibility that it underestimated the number of vaccinated patients in more recent COVID waves, and the total number of infections, because it excluded patients who performed at-home rapid tests.

Cuba

Cuba fell below 100 daily COVID-19 infections for the first time this year, after reporting 93 cases and no deaths in the last day, which brought the caseload to 1,103,488 and maintained the death toll at 8,527, the Ministry of Public Health said Wednesday.

In its daily pandemic report, the ministry indicated that there were currently 635 active cases in the island, also the lowest figure of the year.

The province of Havana registered the highest number of new cases in the last 24 hours with 21, followed by Ciego de Avila with 11, and Camaguey and Cienfuegos, which had nine each.

So far, 9.9 million of Cuba's 11.2 million residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while over 6.5 million people have received a booster dose.

The national vaccination campaign is being carried out with three Cuban-made vaccines named Abdala, Soberana-02 and Soberana Plus.

Denmark

Twice as many men have died from COVID-19 in Denmark than women, Statistics Denmark said on Wednesday.

A study of 3,550 Danish citizens who died from COVID-19 between March 2020, when the coronavirus first appeared in Denmark, and the end of 2021 revealed that the mortality rate, and in particular the gender distribution, was unequal across demographic groups.

While the overall mortality rate was 61 deaths per 100,000 citizens, the "age adjusted" rate was 46 out of 100,000 women and just over 81 out of 100,000 men.

"The higher mortality rate among men can be due to many different factors, such as lifestyle, but these are not contexts we have investigated," said Anne Vinkel Hansen, data scientist at Statistics Denmark.

A woman receives her first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 in Mexico City on August 10, 2021. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP)

Mexico

Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard will continue with plans to visit Central America and the Caribbean, he said on Wednesday, following a negative COVID-19 test after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken has tested positive for COVID-19 and was showing mild symptoms, the State Department said, after the two had met in Washington the previous day to discuss investment in Central America.

Novavax

Novavax Inc said on Wednesday it had filed an application with Britain's drugs regulator for the authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine among adolescents aged 12 and older.

Britain had in February cleared the two-dose vaccine, Nuvaxovid, for use in adults amid a spike in cases fueled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Novavax's submission includes data from a late-stage trial in the United States, where the vaccine showed 80 percent efficacy among adolescents when Delta was the dominant variant in the country.

The headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, in a photo taken on Jan 30. (CHEN JUNXIA / XINHUA)

WHO

Experts from the World Health Organization emphasized on Wednesday that vaccines are still highly effective against COVID-19, even new variants of the disease emerging in South Africa and the United States.

WHO data shows that global cases of COVID-19 are continually declining, with reported weekly deaths at their lowest level since March 2020. However, the Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned at a press briefing on Wednesday that these trends don't tell the full story.

"Driven by Omicron sub-variants, we are seeing an increase in reported cases in the Americas and Africa. The South African scientists who identified Omicron late last year have now reported two more Omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5, as the reason for a spike in cases in South Africa," he said.

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan makes a national statement on the second day of the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow on Nov 2, 2021. (HANNAH MCKAY / POOL / AFP）

Tanzania

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan late Tuesday urged fellow citizens to stop relaxing taking COVID-19 precaution measures, saying the pandemic is still a threat to humankind.

"People should continue taking measures as new variants of the pandemic keep on being spotted in various parts of the world," said President Hassan while addressing a Muslim religious gathering in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam to mark Eid al-Fitr festival.

She made the appeal against a backdrop of what she described as a drop in reported cases of the pandemic.

She said since Tanzania launched COVID-19 vaccination campaign in July 2021, about 3,950,839 Tanzanians have been fully vaccinated, which is an equivalent of 13 percent of its vaccination target.

"The vaccination campaign has somehow slowed down," said the head of state.

President Hassan said the government will soon renew the vaccination campaign that will mobilize people to get the jabs en masse.

Tanzania intends to vaccinate at least 60 percent of its 60 million population.

In this file photo taken on May 2, 2022 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a signing ceremony with Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at the State Department in Washington, DC.(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP）

US

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a State Department spokesman said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon via a PCR test

Blinken tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon via a PCR test, Ned Price, the spokesman, said in a statement.

Blinken was fully vaccinated and boosted against the virus, and "is experiencing only mild symptoms," he said.

Price said that in accordance with the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in consultation with the State Department's Bureau of Medical Services, Blinken "will isolate at home and maintain a virtual work schedule."

According to Price, Blinken has not seen US President Joe Biden in person for several days.

Blinken was originally scheduled to deliver a speech on US strategy toward China at George Washington University in Washington, DC, on Thursday. It's not clear whether, or in what ways, changes will be made regarding the arrangement of the event.