Results of a study by South African scientists indicated that people infected with the Omicron variant of the virus SARS-CoV-2 are less likely to develop a severe illness and be hospitalised than people infected with the delta variant of the virus. Researchers also pointed to the high immunity proportion in the population, British-Canadian news agency Reuters reports.
The research was conducted by a group of scientists from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and other significant institutions such as the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The scientists included several caveats and cautioned against jumping to conclusions about Omicron’s intrinsic aspects. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, found that people diagnosed with Omicron in South Africa between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30 were 80% less likely to be admitted to hospital than those diagnosed with another variant in the same period.
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The study showed that people, who were hospitalised in South Africa with Omicron in October to November were 70% less likely to develop severe disease than those admitted with the Delta variant in the period between April and November. Meanwhile, among patients admitted to South African hospitals from October 1 to November 31, people with Omicron had a similar chance of developing severe disease as those with other variants.
«Compellingly, together our data really suggest a positive story of a reduced severity of Omicron compared to other variants», concluded Professor Cheryl Cohen of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, one of the study’s researchers as quoted by Reuters.
South African research points to reduced hospitalisations with Omicron, compared to Delta
