The Covid-19 pandemic has been adding its history of menacing the world with back-to-back whammies as the emergence of new variants has become a huge ordeal for the countries and experts in studying, addressing, and containing it. If we rewind back to two years from now, Coronavirus was hopping out from the Chinese territory and in two years, the world has seen several of its variants with risky characteristics and while the Delta variant has been dominant in many countries, the latest arrival is the Omicron variant.

The rapid spread of Delta, which was first detected in India, and the emergence of Omicron had made the pandemic 'Twindemic' the sequel of the dual threats. Omicron was first reported in South Africa on November 24, 2021, and it was immediately designated as a Variant of Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). The southern African countries were isolated and the rest were alerted after Omicron started making a move. As the scientific world is currently researching the variant and the efficacies of the vaccines in beating it, let's go for a comparison between Delta and Omicron. 

First reported in India last year, the Delta Variant had largely damaged the parts of the Western world including Europe and the United States, which reported more Delta variant cases. Delta is believed to be more than twice as contagious as previous variants, and studies have shown that it may be more likely cause reinfection.

The WHO had earmarked Delta as a Variant of Concern and Dr Perry Wilson of Yale Medicine has said that Delta's quick growth rate has been especially dramatic and it was spreading 50% faster than the Alpha variant, which was 50% more contagious than the original Coronavirus. The world countries and experts echoed that the unvaccinated people are at high risk of getting infected by Delta. It was predicted that if Delta continues to accelerate the pandemic, the transmissibility rate will surge. 

Shockingly, the Omicron variant is must faster than Delta. A preliminary study by South African scientists published Thursday had suggested that the Omicron variant is three times more likely to cause reinfections compared to the Delta and Beta variants. The findings were based on data collected by the country's health system and it has become the first epidemiological evidence about Omicron's ability to evade immunity from prior infection.

Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, said, "Recent infections have occurred in individuals whose primary infections occurred across all three waves, with the most having their primary infection in the Delta wave." By citing that the authors of the study won't have information about the individuals' vaccination status, she said that the researchers will be studying that next. "We believe that vaccines will still however protect against severe disease. Vaccines have always held out to protect against serious disease, hospitalizations and death", she added. 

On Friday, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told the Reuters Next Conference said that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is very transmissible but people should not panic about it. She said the emergence of the variant was unwelcome but that the world was much better prepared to handle it given the development of vaccines since the start of the pandemic. On the front of whether Omicron will be the cause of the third wave in India, the government said that given the fast pace of vaccination in India and high exposure to Delta variant was seen due to high seropositivity, the severity of the disease is anticipated to be low.