Thread by @kakape

As promised, a brief thread on main points from the Denmark paper in @Eurosurveillanc looking at the first 785 cases of #omicron in the country.

Paper is here:
eurosurveillance.org/content/10.280…

@Eurosurveillanc First off: Things are moving incredibly fast with #omicron.
This timeline gives a good overview of how fast things happened in Denmark:
eurosurveillance.org/content/table/…

@Eurosurveillanc One key finding: More than one in five cases cannot be linked to previous cases.
"This indicates that within 1.5 weeks from identifying the first case of #Omicron, there is already widespread community transmission in Denmark, which challenges further epidemic control."

@Eurosurveillanc "the earliest Omicron cases in Denmark occurred before South Africa announced the emergence of this variant. These cases reported travel history from Qatar and the Netherlands, indicating that the variant might have spread from the African continent before this."

@Eurosurveillanc And, once again, superspreading:
At least 83 Omicron cases linked to five large events in Denmark and the number is likely to increase.
"A high attack rate was reported at one of the events, a seasonal gathering with 150 participants, where 71 (47%) participants got infected.”

@Eurosurveillanc Authors see several reasons for concern:
"(i) the rapid spread shortly after introduction despite extensive contact tracing efforts
(ii) the occurrence of several superspreading events with high attack rates and
(iii) the high proportion of fully vaccinated Omicron cases"

@Eurosurveillanc And, yes, still too early to know about severity:
"We observed nine hospitalisations and one case needed intensive care treatment. Owing to limited follow-up time and few admissions, it is too early to conclude on the severity of the Omicron variant."

@Eurosurveillanc And if you want some early data to pore over, the table on characteristics of #omicron cases to delta cases is an interesting start:
eurosurveillance.org/content/table/…

@Eurosurveillanc I need an evening off, but will try to post an overview thread on #omicron sometime tomorrow...