Compared to its predecessors, including the Delta variant in particular, Omicron “gives less respiratory distress, so it sends patients to intensive care less”, declared Mr. Véran during a hearing before the senators.
Patients with Covid 19 stay in hospital for less time and are sent to intensive care less when they are infected with the Omicron variant, which has become the majority in France in recent weeks, Minister of Health Olivier Véran reported on Monday.
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Appeared at the end of 2021, Omicron caused an explosion of Covid cases in France, as in many other countries, because of a much higher contagiousness than previous incarnations of the virus. But it is also clearly shown to be less dangerous, even if it is still difficult to determine to what extent this lesser severity will offset the explosion of cases. Omicron still causes “fairly strong influenza syndromes” and leads, like previous versions of the virus, “a significant increase in hospitalizations”, warned Mr. Véran.
Encouraging signs from the UK
But “we know with sufficient hindsight now (that the stays are) shorter than with the previous variants,” he noted, noting that Omicron seems to affect the upper parts of the airways rather (and therefore affects less lungs than other variants). Hospitalized patients “will have oxygen requirements for three to four days and (…) then will be able to leave”, detailed the minister. The duration of Covid hospitalizations is a crucial issue in measuring the extent to which the health system risks being saturated while the Omicron wave is not showing any sign of lulling in France for the time being.
In this regard, Olivier Véran refrained from advancing on the date of a possible peak but noticed that encouraging signs were coming from the United Kingdom, where Omicron spread before France. “In the London area, where it struck first, it is dropping,” noted Véran, also citing South Africa, one of the first countries where Omicron was spotted, where the wave linked to the variant seems now passed.
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