A study by the Imperial College London has shown that the risk of Omicron coronavirus variant was five times higher than milder Delta variant.
This came even as cases have begun to soar across Europe and threaten year-end festivities.
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The results were based on UK Health Security Agency and National Health Service data on people who tested positive for COVID-19 between November 29 and December 11.
The study showed that there was, “no evidence (for both risk of hospitalization attendance and symptom status) of Omicron having different severity from Delta.”
We find no evidence (for both risk of hospitalization attendance and symptom status) of Omicron having different severity from Delta,” the study said, although it noted that data on hospitalisations remains very limited.
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The study of December 16 showed that Omicron was associated with a 5.4-fold higher risk of reinfection compared with Delta.
Imperial College added in a statement that ” This implies that the protection against reinfection by Omicron afforded by past infection may be as low as 19 per cent.” (AW)
