THE Omicron variant of the coronavirus appears to have spread between two fully vaccinated people who were staying in separate rooms across the hall from each other in a Hong Kong quarantine hotel, researchers say. The early findings raise concerns about how transmissible the new variant may be. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong announced the findings in an online research letter, which has not been finalized, in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. According to the research letter, one of the individuals arrived in Hong Kong from South Africa on Nov. 11, while the second person arrived from Canada a day earlier. Both men were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with Pfizer’s two-dose shot and had tested negative for the virus within 72 hours before arrival in Hong Kong, the report said. “On arrival at the Hong Kong airport, both case-patients stayed in the same quarantine hotel and had rooms across the corridor from each other on the same floor,” according to the research letter. The person who arrived from South Africa tested positive without symptoms on Nov. 13, the report said, adding that he was taken to a hospital and isolated the next day. According to the research, which cited closed-circuit television camera footage, the two never left their hotel rooms during the recent quarantine period. “No items were shared between rooms, and other persons did not enter either room,” the report said, noting that the only time the two people opened their hotel doors was to collect food that was placed outside of each door. “Airborne transmission across the corridor is the most probable mode of transmission,” the researchers wrote, adding that such a spread could hint the virus is more infectious. David Edwards, an aerosol scientist and Harvard University faculty member, said it’s possible that the exhaled virus from the South African traveler could have slipped under the door and into the room of the person across the hall. The other man developed “mild symptoms” Nov. 17, the report said. He tested positive for the virus the next day and was also taken to a hospital. “Should the hotel be air-conditioned, and notably the relative humidity low, the exhaled droplets of the South African may have been even smaller [than one-thousandth of a millimeter] — and passage under doors and through hallways is easily achievable,” Edwards said. The Omicron variant also has several mutations that have public health experts concerned the strain could be more transmissible than other variants, though more research is needed to be sure. It remains unclear whether Omicron could cause more severe disease than other variants of the virus. (SD-Agencies) | 