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Closed crook stiles pursuing the quality that Aston Villa's lucifer against Burnley astatine Villa Park has been postponed, successful Birmingham, England, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021. The Premier League mislaid different lucifer to a COVID-19 outbreak successful a squad erstwhile Aston Villas location crippled against Burnley was postponed astir 2 hours earlier kickoff. Villa said it did not person capable players to tract a squad pursuing much affirmative tests successful its squad. (David Davies/PA via AP)

VIENNA – The omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected successful 89 countries and is spreading rapidly adjacent successful places with precocious levels of colonisation immunity, the World Health Organization said Saturday.

The fig of COVID-19 cases involving omicron is doubling each 1.5 to 3 days successful countries wherever determination is assemblage transmission of the variant and not conscionable radical who were infected abroad, WHO said.

Omicron's “substantial maturation advantage” implicit the delta variant means it is apt to soon overtake delta arsenic the ascendant variant successful those countries, the U.N. wellness bureau said.

It remains unclear if the accelerated maturation of omicron cases is due to the fact that the variant evades existing immunity, is inherently much transmissible than erstwhile variants, oregon a operation of both, WHO said.

Other large questions astir omicron stay unanswered, including however effectual each of the existing COVID-19 vaccines are against it. Conclusive information besides does not beryllium yet connected however sick omicron makes COVID-19 patients, the wellness bureau said.

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WHO archetypal labeled omicron a variant of interest connected Nov. 26.

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