AstraZeneca advances on omicron vaccine 0:39
(CNN) -
Two new pre-printed articles add to mounting evidence that the omicron variant of the coronavirus may be less likely to cause serious illness and hospitalizations compared to the delta variant.
Omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization for covid-19 compared to delta, suggests a study, published online this Wednesday as a working paper by researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.
This research was conducted in Scotland.
The other document, posted Tuesday on the online server medrxiv.org, suggests that people with omicron infections were 80% less likely to be admitted to the hospital compared to delta infections.
But once the patient was hospitalized, there was no difference in risk of serious illness, according to that South African-based research.
Both studies include preliminary data and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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The Scottish study included data from 23,840 omicron cases and 126,511 delta cases, from November 1 to December 19.
The researchers - from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Strathclyde and the Scottish Office of Public Health - closely examined the health outcomes of omicron infections compared to delta infections.
There were 15 hospital admissions among the omicron infected and 856 hospital admissions among the delta.
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"Although their numbers are small, the study is good news. The two-thirds reduction in hospitalization for doubly vaccinated youth compared to delta indicates that omicron will be milder for more people," said James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Institute. Franklin and a professor of structural biology at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in either study, in a written statement distributed by the UK Center for Science Media on Wednesday.
"The study is rigorous, but it's early days (so it could change a bit with more data and more studies will be reported in the coming weeks). Keep in mind that some South African scientists have long said that omicron was softer." Naismith said. "Although the two-thirds reduction is significant, omicron can cause serious illness in double-vaccinated people. Therefore, if omicron keeps doubling every few days, it could lead to many more hospitalizations than Delta in the double-vaccinated population."
The researchers found that the proportion of omicron cases that were probable reinfections in people who had previously had COVID-19 was more than 10 times that of delta.
The data also showed that having received a third dose of the vaccine, or booster shot, was associated with a 57% reduction in the risk of symptomatic omicron infection when compared to being at least 25 weeks after completing a second dose. .
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"These first national data suggest that omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization for covid-19 compared to delta. Although it offers the greatest protection against delta, the third booster dose of vaccination offers additional protection. substantial versus symptomatic covid-19 risk for omicron, "the researchers wrote in the paper.
The other work used data on 161,328 nationally reported COVID-19 cases in South Africa between October 1 and December 6.
The researchers - from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town - found that, among people infected with omicron, 2.5% were admitted to hospital during that period, compared to the 12.8% of people infected with Delta.
The researchers wrote in their paper: "This is early data and the findings may change as the epidemic progresses."
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