Good News About Omicron: Top Expert Shares Crucial Study on New COVID Variant. Details Here

Among all those analysed, 30 per cent of Delta patients had to undergo ICU admission, while only 18 per cent of the Omicron patients analysed were admitted to ICU.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Priyanka

Published: January 3, 2022, 12:33 AM IST

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South Korea had on Tuesday recorded the deadliest day of the pandemic with 293 deaths reported in 24 hours, news agency Associated Press reported.

New Delhi: Here comes a a piece of “good news” amid the Omicron case surge across the world and renowned top infectious diseases expert Dr Faheem Younus is the one to share it. As per a recent study, the new Covid-19 variant Omicron causes “significantly less” severe disease as compared to the widely prevalent Delta variant of coronavirus, Dr Younus said.

The study on hospitalised Covid-19 patients conducted in South Africa shows acute respiratory symptoms among 31 per cent of Omicron patients as compared to 91 per cent of Delta patients analysed in the study. Duration of hospitalisation was reduced to three days in case of patients infected with Omicron, as compared to seven days among Delta patients. Among the Delta patients, 69 per cent required hospitalisations, while it was 41 per cent in the case of Omicron.

2/ Some limitations of this study

– Younger patients in Omicron group

– Outcomes in the Omicron group could be better due to prior infection or vaccine induced immunity

– Sequencing data not available

But this pattern of Omicron has been shown in various studies by now

— Faheem Younus, MD (@FaheemYounus) January 2, 2022

Among all those analysed, 30 per cent of Delta patients had to undergo ICU admission, while only 18 per cent of the Omicron patients analysed were admitted to ICU. Also, 12 per cent of the total patients analysed were put on a ventilator as compared to 1.6 per cent in the case of Omicron. The mortality rate stood at 29 per cent among Delta patients, while the mortality rate was 3 per cent among Omicron patients.

Dr Younus, however, said despite these positive insights, there were some limitations to the said study. He said there were younger patients in the Omicron group, and that the outcome in that group could be better due to “prior infection or vaccine-induced immunity”. The patients’ median age for Delta and Omicron groups was 59 and 36, respectively. He said “sequencing data” was also not available in the case of the Omicron group. However, Dr Younus said similar patterns have been shown in various studies when it comes to Omicron.