Omicron is unlikely to be the last Covid variant to cause 'a lot of attention and a lot of concern', the director of the National Institutes of Health has warned.

Dr Francis Collins warned it is 'certainly possible that (Omicron) is not the last emerging variant' and said it is likely the virus will continue to mutate from the original Covid that emerged from Wuhan in China.

His comments come as the Omicron variant spread to nearly one-third of U.S.

states, prompting surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy to call for calm with the nation already struggling to get a grip on the ongoing pandemic. 

Collins told Chuck Todd on : 'It's certainly possible that this is not the last emerging variant that will attract a lot of attention and a lot of concern.  

'This one does have the largest number of mutations that we've seen so far, Omicron, with about 50 mutations, compared to the original Wuhan virus. 

'And it looks as if they probably arose in an immunocompromised individual, this is a hypothesis but it seems plausible, who wasn't able to completely fight off the virus.

'And so, it remained in the system, maybe for months, in that person until they finally got over it.

And that is, of course, a perfect situation for the virus to be able to pick up additional mutations along the way.'

At least 15 US states have reported Omicron cases, including: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. 

The health boss, who will step down as director of the NIH this month after 12 years at the helm, said it could be a pattern that continues.

He said: 'To the extent that that's going to keep happening if we don't have adequate immune protection across the globe, yeah, we're probably going to see something and we'll have to use some of the other letters in the Greek alphabet.' 

Despite the dire warnings, White House chief medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci says early indications from South Africa suggest Omicron may not be as severe as previously feared.  

'Thus far - though it's too early to really make any definitive statements about it - it does not look like there's a great degree of severity to it, but we've really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe or really doesn't cause any severe illness comparable to delta,' he said.

'But thus far, the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the severity.

But again we've got to hold judgement until we get more experienced.'

President Joe Biden locked eight South African countries out of the US last Monday in fear of the new super mutant COVID variant, and the ban remains in place despite travel remaining open to other foreign countries.

Although the Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa, it was later revealed that a case of the variant was confirmed in Europe a week before cases were detected in South Africa.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last Wednesday said it was 'deeply unfair' to isolate a single region, calling the ban 'travel apartheid.'

But Fauci said Sunday that the restrictions were made during a time when an explosion of Omicron cases were rocking South Africa as the severity of the variant remained unknown.

He said US officials are now reevaluating the restrictions. 

'When the ban was put on, it was put to give us time to figure out just what is going on,' Fauci told CNN's Jack Tapper during Sunday morning's episode of State of the Nation. 

'Now as you mentioned, as we are getting more and more information about cases in our own country and worldwide, we're looking at that very carefully on a daily basis.'

He said he's hopeful they're keeping close tabs on the situation as they mull whether to ban is necessary.

'We all feel very badly about the hardship that might have put upon not only South Africa but the other African countries,' Fauci told CNN.

'For that reason, in real time - literally on a daily basis -we are reevaluating that policy.'

The outbreak of new variant in the province of Gauteng in South Africa has triggered the sharpest rise in hospitalizations of any previous wave, sparking concerns of a similar outbreak in other nations.

Surgeon General Dr.

Vivek Murthy on Sunday urged Americans not to panic over the new variant, but said they should continue to take precautions. 

 'I do think it's a reason for us to not necessarily panic but to be more vigilant and to recognize that the precautions that we have been talking about for the last year or so are all the more important now than ever,' Murthy told Fox News host Chris Wallace.

'We do know that the measures that we take to protect ourselves from the spread of COVID - including wearing masks in indoor spaces, being in well-ventilated spaces - those work and will work against omicron.' 

Gauteng alone has seen over 1,000 hospital admissions in the past week, quadrupling the figure recorded just two weeks ago, while South Africa recorded a total of 1,802 hospitalizations in the past week to Friday - the latest day for Смотреть тут бесплатно which data is available.

The virus also appears to be more transmissible, with cases up from around 300 three weeks ago to nearly 7,000 on a seven-day rolling average.

Cases have soared by a massive 408 per cent in just one week while deaths rose from eight to 21 across the same time period, according to the latest figures.  

It is not known which variant the new cases recorded were.