Preliminary studies in the UK and South Africa suggest that the Omicron wave of COVID-19 could be milder than those of previous variants, resulting in a lower hospitalisation rate.
The UK study said that there is a 20 to 25 per cent lower risk of a hospital visit and at least 40 per cent lower chance of being admitted overnight. The sample size of the study was 56,000 cases of Omicron and 2,69,000 cases of Delta in England between December 1 and 14.
These are the first studies of their kind since the emergence of the Omicron variant.
Despite this, the researchers voiced their concerns that the high transmissibility of the new variant could still overwhelm medical infrastructure if precautionary measures are ignored.
“Given the high transmissibility of the Omicron virus, there remains the potential for health services to face increasing demand if Omicron cases continue to grow at the rate that has been seen in recent weeks,” said Neil Ferguson, one of the researchers.
The study from Scotland added there were only a few at-risk elderly people included in the study and that countries should do their individual in-depth research to ascertain the effect of Omicron on their own population.
Scientists are describing the findings of yesterday's study as a “qualified good news story”.
In South Africa, another study pointed out that those with the Omicron variant were 70 to 80 per cent less likely to be hospitalised.
“Compellingly, together our data really suggest a positive story of a reduced severity of Omicron compared to other variants,” said Cheryl Cohen of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, in South Africa.
The lower severity of Omicron cases is presumed to be a combination of the differing properties of the new variant and the high levels of immunity obtained from vaccinations and previous infection.
In the meantime, Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said that the world would have enough doses of COVID vaccines next year if western nations did not hoard them for booster programmes.
“Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate,” Tedros said
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic.”