A study carried out in South Africa indicates that the omicron variant of covid-19 would cause a less severe disease, reducing the risk of hospitalization and death compared to the delta by 25%, although it specifies that its severity has been attenuated above all by vaccines and previous infection.
"In the omicron-driven wave, severe covid-19 outcomes were reduced primarily by protection provided by prior infection and/or vaccination", says the study developed by scientists from South Africa, "but intrinsically reduced virulence could represent a 25% reduced risk of serious hospitalization or death compared to (variant) delta".
That is, even taking into account the protection provided by vaccination or immunity from previous infections, the study data suggest that the specific characteristics of this variant reduce the risk of serious illness with omicron by 25% compared with delta.
The study supports other preliminary scientific results obtained so far globally, which point to higher transmissibility but lower virulence of omicron, a variant detected in late November in South Africa.
Carried out in the South African province of the Western Cape, the study compared 5,144 patients from the fourth wave, driven by omicron and whose peak the country considered surpassed at the end of December, with 11,609 patients infected in the previous waves, the last of which was dominated by delta.
The study, carried out by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NICD) and the health authorities of the province and the country, is still pending peer review by the scientific community.
South Africa, with 3.5 million cases accumulated to date and more than 93,000 deaths, remains the great epicenter of the pandemic in Africa.
Vaccination progress is slow and less than 30% of the total population has the complete schedule.
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