The risk of any type of hospitalization would be reduced by at least 20% compared to the delta variant. However, experts are cautious and point out that the high transmission rate could still lead to more severe cases.
Could this be a sign of hope? Two British studies published on Wednesday suggest that infections with the omicron variant of Covid-19 are less likely to cause hospitalizations than those with the delta variant. Clearly, the risk of any type of hospitalization would be reduced by 20 to 25%. That of admissions (hospitalizations of one night or more) would even be 40 to 45%. These results confirm a trend that had already been observed in South Africa, where the omicron variant was detected for the first time.
This decrease in serious cases could be explained by the fact that an increasing part of the population is immunized thanks to the vaccine. But the study from Imperial College London clearly notes a lower severity in patients who have never been vaccinated or contaminated before, of the order of 11%. To come to these conclusions, the team behind the study analyzed hospitalizations and vaccination records among the 325,000 cases of Covid confirmed by PCR in England between December 1 and 14.
Results to be qualified in view of the transmission rate
After the publication of these studies scientists hailed what they believe is good news, “Even if it does not detract from the extraordinary spread of this variant in the population” warns Penny Ward, professor of pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London. “A small proportion of people requiring hospital care for Covid could turn into very large numbers if the rate of community spread continues to rise” she puts into perspective. In England, the number of daily cases is exploding with the breakthrough of the omicron variant. This Wednesday the record was broken with more than 106,000 contaminations identified.
Omicron variant: what measures in France?
In France, where 84,000 cases were identified on the same day, doctors also prefer to qualify the results of these studies. In particular the president of the medical commission of the AP-HP, Rémi Salomon, who considers “That this good news must be weighed against the extreme contagiousness of this virus which is spreading like wildfire. Even if there are fewer severe cases, there will be so many cases in total that we should probably see a significant increase in the number of patients in hospitals ”, he declared this Thursday on RTL.