Explained: How serious is the infection caused by Omicron variant of COVID19
Initial estimates show that the severity of the infection caused by the COVID19’s Omicron variant is less than the Delta strain. But researchers warn that it is too early to rely on the initial data available on the severity of the disease. Details here.
Less severity doesn’t mean that the Omicron variant is to be taken lightly as it is highly contagious. Photo: Creative Commons
The Omicron variant of the COVID19 was first identified by the South African scientists on November 24. Within a month, this fast-spreading variant of SARS-CoV-2 has now been reported from at least 89 countries around the world with the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) witnessing the highest number of confirmed cases — around 25,000 in UK and at least 1,500 cases in USA.
At least 14 deaths due to Omicron variant have been reported globally. Also, at least 214 Omicron cases have been reported in India as well. The new variant has been found to be three times more likely to infect a person than the Delta variant which had wreaked havoc during the destructive ‘second wave’ of the COVID19 pandemic in India.
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According to an article titled How severe are Omicron infections? which was published in the Nature journal on December 17 mentioned that early results provide a glimmer of hope as far as the severity of the infection by the Omicron variant is concerned.
‘Lower rate of hospitisations but…’
The article which was published in the Nature journal on December 17 mentioned that reports from South Africa have consistently noted a lower rate of hospitalisation as a result of Omicron infections compared with infections caused by the Delta variant, which is currently responsible for most SARS-CoV-2 infections globally.
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“On 14 December, the South African private health insurer Discovery Health in Johannesburg announced that hospitalization risk has been 29% lower among people infected with Omicron, compared with people infected with a previous variant (Delta),” it stated.
Heidi Ledford, the article’s reporter wrote that these findings have fueled suggestions that Omicron causes milder disease than previous variants. “But researchers say it is too early to be sure, and key methodological details of that study have not yet been published,” Ledford stated.
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Various researches point towards disease severity
“Such details are crucial when interpreting data on disease severity, which can be confounded by factors such as hospital capacity, the age and overall health of those initially infected, and the extent of previous exposure to coronavirus,” the article added.
It was further underlined that it will take time for a consistent picture to emerge from countries that currently have fewer Omicron infections.
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“On 13 December, Denmark released data showing that hospitalization rates for people infected with Omicron seemed to be on a par with those for people infected with other variants. But this comparison was based on only about 3,400 cases of Omicron infection and 37 hospitalizations,” it added.
The article also took note of a December 16 report from Imperial College London which found no evidence of diminished hospitalisations from Omicron infections compared with Delta in England. “Although this was again based on relatively few cases,” it added.
“Overall, the numbers are still too small to draw firm conclusions about the severity of disease caused by Omicron,” Troels Lillebæk, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Copenhagen was quoted.
‘Small fraction of a large number is still a large number’
Suggesting that less severity doesn’t mean that the Omicron variant is to be taken lightly as it is highly contagious, the Nature article quoted Mark Woolhouse, a professor of epidemiology at UK’s University of Edinburgh.
A small fraction of a very large number is still a large number,” Woolhouse was quoted. “So the population-level threat is very real,” he added.
“A rapidly spreading variant could dangerously strain health-care systems, even if the risk of severe disease or death is relatively low for any individual,” the article mentioned.
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