A British analysis of more that one million cases shows that the risk of hospitalization with the Omicron variant of corona virus is about one-third comparing to the Delta variant Reuters reports.
Britain is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, with record daily infections of 189,846 reported on Friday.
The number of patients needing mechanical ventilation beds has also remained steady through December, unlike previous peaks in the pandemic.
The analysis was published by the UK Health Security Agency, after it worked alongside Cambridge University MRC Biostatistics unit to analyse 528,176 Omicron cases and 573,012 Delta cases.
It also found that vaccines can work well against Omicron.
“In this analysis, the risk of hospitalization is lower for Omicron cases with symptomatic or asymptomatic infection after 2 and 3 doses of vaccine, with an 81% … reduction in the risk of hospitalization after 3 doses compared to unvaccinated Omicron cases,” the UKHSA said.
Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Adviser at UKHSA, said the analysis was in keeping with other encouraging signs on Omicron but said the health service could still struggle with such high transmission rates.
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