Britain: Omicron’s risk of hospitalization reduced by up to 70%

The risk of treating those infected with the Omicron variant is lower compared to Delta, but Omicron’s high transmissibility could lead to a significant number of patients who would need hospital treatment, according to the British government.

Analysis of preliminary data by the UK Health Insurance Agency (UKHSA) shows that a patient with Omicron is 31-45% less likely to seek hospital help and 50-70% less likely to be admitted for treatment, always compared with the Delta.

The head of the service, Jenny Harris, commented that it is “encouraging” the indication that those affected by this variant may be at less risk of being hospitalized. “However, it should be noted that these are preliminary data and more research is needed to confirm these findings,” he said.

The findings are in line with similar findings made by studies at Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh. But more data are needed on the effects of this variant on the elderly.

Vaccination, severity of the disease and the effectiveness of vaccines remain the three key questions that experts and public health services try to answer to assess whether more unpopular and cost-effective measures should be taken.

The UKHSA said data show that protection against symptomatic illness is reduced after the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, but improves after the booster dose. However, protection decreases faster against the Omicron than in the Delta and is approximately 15-25% lower after the 10th week of the booster dose.

Britain again broke the record of cases today, with 119,789 infections, from 106,122 yesterday. Within a week, a total of 678,165 cases were recorded in the country. Many industries and transport networks face staff shortages as workers go into self-isolation because they have been infected or are in close contact with cases. To reduce the financial impact, the government announced yesterday that it is reducing the period of compulsory quarantine in England to 7 days, from 10 so far, so that workers can return to work earlier.

SOURCE: AMPE