Early analyses suggest a reduced risk of hospitalisation among SGTF-infected individuals when compared to non-SGTF infected individuals in the same time period, and a reduced risk of severe disease when compared to earlier Delta-infected individuals. Some of this reducton is likely a result of high population immunity.
Our findings correlate with DATCOV surveillance hospitalisation data showing that, among patients
who had a known hospital outcome, 32% of COVID-19 admissions during the early fourth wave were severe compared to 65% during the early third wave.
And, surprise, surprise…
The UK Health Security Agency is due to say something similar in its first analysis of Omicron in the UK, to be published before Christmas.
The best news in the early data is that Britons who fall sick with Omicron are less likely to become severely ill than those who caught Delta. More people are likely to have a mild illness with less serious symptoms — probably in part due to Britain’s large number of vaccinated and previously infected people, and possibly because Omicron may be intrinsically milder.