No proof Omicron has decrease severity than Delta variant: research

There is “no evidence” that Omicron has a decrease severity than the Delta pressure, in response to a research within the UK which additionally discovered that the brand new variant of coronavirus largely evades immunity from previous an infection or two vaccine doses.
The research by researchers from Imperial College London within the UK estimates that the danger of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 instances higher than that of the Delta variant
This implies that the safety in opposition to reinfection by Omicron afforded by previous an infection could also be as little as 19 per cent, the researchers stated.

“The research finds no proof of Omicron having decrease severity than Delta, judged by both the proportion of individuals testing optimistic who report signs, or by the proportion of instances in search of hospital care after an infection, the authors of the research stated.
“However, hospitalisation data remains very limited at this time,” they added.
The yet-to-be-published research used information for all PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 instances in England who had taken a COVID-19 check between November 29 and December 11, 2021.

The analysis included folks recognized as having Omicron an infection attributable to an S gene goal failure (SGTF), in addition to folks with genotype information that confirmed Omicron an infection.
Overall, 196,463 folks with out S gene goal failure – these prone to be contaminated with one other variant – and 11,329 instances with it have been included within the evaluation, in addition to 122,063 Delta and 1,846 Omicron instances within the genotype evaluation.
The outcomes counsel that the proportion of Omicron amongst all COVID instances was doubling each two days as much as December 11, the researchers stated.
They estimate that the replica quantity (R) – the variety of instances instantly brought on by an contaminated particular person – of Omicron was above 3 over the interval studied.
“This study provides further evidence of the very substantial extent to which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection or vaccination,” stated Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College London.
“This level of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health,” Ferguson stated in an announcement.
Controlling for vaccine standing, age, intercourse, ethnicity, asymptomatic standing, area and specimen date, Omicron was related to a 5.40 fold increased threat of reinfection in contrast with Delta, the research discovered.
The reinfection threat estimated within the present research suggests this safety has fallen to 19 per cent in opposition to an Omicron an infection, in response to the researchers.

They discovered a considerably elevated threat of creating a symptomatic Omicron case in comparison with Delta for many who have been two or extra weeks previous their second vaccine dose, and two or extra weeks previous their booster dose for AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
“Depending on the estimates used for vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant, this translates into vaccine effectiveness estimates against symptomatic Omicron infection of between 0 per cent and 20 per cent after two doses, and between 55 per cent and 80 per cent after a booster dose,” the researchers added.