File
While the Omicron variant is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in South Africa, findings are showing that it is less severe, with fewer hospitalisations compared to the previous waves.
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) revealed this during a media briefing on Wednesday. According to the NICD’s Professor Cheryl Cohen, Omicron patients had an 80% lower chance of hospital admission.
"However, when we compare Omicron to the Delta in the previous waves, amongst hospitalised people, [it] was significantly 70% less in severity. So all the data together are pointing to a very consistent predictor picture of a reduction in severity in South Africa."
However, according to Cohen, who is the Head of the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, researchers cannot yet tell how much it is from vaccination, previous infection or intrinsic reduced virulence of the virus.
"We still need to explain that. But I think what we can say is that in South Africa, this is the epidemiology."
Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe and likely this is generalisable to other countries in the region in sub-Saharan Africa, which have a similar picture, with very high levels of previous infections," she explained.
In addition, the Professor said it was still unclear whether the picture will be similar in countries where there are high levels of vaccination but very low infection.
(Source: SAnews.gov.za)
