Omicron hospitalization risk about 1/3 of Delta – UK analysis

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The UK is experiencing an increased in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, with daily infection records being reported. Although hospital admissions have begun to increase, the government said it believes the new variant is milder than the Delta.

The number of patients requiring mechanical ventilation beds also remained stable in December, unlike previous peaks in the pandemic.

The analysis was published by the UK’s Health Security Agency, after working alongside Cambridge University’s MRC biostatistics unit to analyze 528,176 cases of Omicron and 573,012 cases of Delta.

The study also pointed out that vaccines can work well against Omicron.

“In this analysis, the risk of hospitalization is lower for Omicron cases with symptomatic or asymptomatic infection after 2 and 3 doses of the vaccine, with an 81% reduction…in the risk of hospitalization after 3 doses compared with non-vaccinated Omicron cases,” the agency said.

The agency’s chief medical adviser Susan Hopkins said the analysis is in line with other encouraging signs about Omicron, but said the health service may still struggle with the high transmission rates.

“It is still too early to draw any firm conclusions about the severity of hospitalization, and the increased transmissibility of Omicron and the rise in cases in the over-60s population in England means that it remains highly likely that there will be significant pressure on the NHS in the coming weeks,” she said.

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