>The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, found that people diagnosed with Omicron in South Africa between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30 were 80% less likely to be admitted to hospital than those diagnosed with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.
So this suggests it is less virulent than other variants (although how many people did have Omicron in SA in Oct-Nov? Might be quite a small sample).
>Among patients admitted in that period, those with Omicron had a similar chance of developing severe disease as those with other variants.
>However, the study found that people who were hospitalised with Omicron in October-November were 70% less likely to develop severe disease than those admitted with Delta between April and November.
While this suggests an additional effect of higher immunity levels. (In SA higher immunity is more down to most people already having been infected. In Britain, it would be down more to vaccinations. But both will have higher immunity than they did before. Question then is whether one kind of immunity is significantly better than the other.)
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>The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, found that people diagnosed with Omicron in South Africa between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30 were 80% less likely to be admitted to hospital than those diagnosed with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.
So this suggests it is less virulent than other variants (although how many people did have Omicron in SA in Oct-Nov? Might be quite a small sample).
>Among patients admitted in that period, those with Omicron had a similar chance of developing severe disease as those with other variants.
>However, the study found that people who were hospitalised with Omicron in October-November were 70% less likely to develop severe disease than those admitted with Delta between April and November.
While this suggests an additional effect of higher immunity levels. (In SA higher immunity is more down to most people already having been infected. In Britain, it would be down more to vaccinations. But both will have higher immunity than they did before. Question then is whether one kind of immunity is significantly better than the other.)