Estimates suggest that people with Covid-19 caused by the Ômicron variant of the new coronavirus are 15% less likely to seek hospital care and 40% less likely to be hospitalized compared to infection with the Delta variant.
The data are from a study conducted by researchers at Imperial College, London, released on Wednesday (22).
Although a reduction in disease severity has been shown by Ômicron, the researchers point out that the risks of infection with the new variant are greater, due to the reduction in protection afforded by vaccination or by natural infection with the virus. This means that, at a population level, a large number of infections can lead to a large number of hospitalizations.
The risk of hospitalization for the Ômicron variant was estimated in England by the Imperial College team. The survey includes cases of infection by the new coronavirus confirmed by molecular diagnosis (RT PCR) in the British country between the 1st and 14th of December. Variant identification was performed by genetic sequencing.
The analysis included a dataset of 56,000 cases of Covid-19 by Ômicron and 269,000 cases of Delta. In the study, hospital attendance was defined as any record of attendance at a hospital for a confirmed case within 14 days of testing positive.
In a second moment, the researchers evaluated the visits that had a period of stay of one or more days.
Based on this set of information, experts have estimated that Ômicron cases have, on average, a reduced risk of 15 to 20% of any hospital care and a reduced risk of approximately 40 to 45% of admissions, with one or more days .
Reference: CNN Brasil
