Early assessment of the clinical severity of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant in South Africa: a data linkage study
Analysis of clinical severity of infections with omicron using S gene target failure (SGTF) test as a proxy suggests significantly reduced odds of hospitalisation among individuals with SGTF vs. non-SGTF infections between 1/10/21 & 30/11/21, probably due to previous immunity.
Source:
The Lancet
SPS commentary:
According to a commentary, community epidemics of the omicron variant will probably have less of an impact on health compared with previous COVID-19 waves in most locations because of increased levels of population immunity and the possible reduced intrinsic severity of omicron infections. It notes however that in this generally young South African population, 21% of hospitalised patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant had a severe clinical outcome, a proportion that might increase and cause substantial impact during outbreaks in populations with different demographics and lower levels of infection-derived or vaccine-derived immunity. It adds that though this report of typically milder disease following infection with the omicron versus delta variant in South Africa is encouraging, it should not be assumed that omicron variant epidemics will have such a low health effect elsewhere.