Omicron significantly milder than Delta?

Virologist Kekulé: "It is clear after this study"

Created: 01/14/2022 05:38

By: Marc Dimitriu

Virologist Alexander Kekule comments on the Omikron study.

© Müller-Stauffenberg / Imago

A new US study gives hope.

The Omikron variant seems to be actually much milder than Delta.

Still there is a but.

Munich - After the first horror reports about Omikron, early studies gave hope that the variant had a milder course than the previously dominant delta variant of the corona virus.

However, the first studies came from South Africa, where Omikron was first rampant.

The problem with this, however, is that the population there is significantly younger than in Europe.

This means that there are significantly fewer risk patients and more people with a good immune system.

Researchers warned to view the studies from South Africa with caution.

Corona: More and more studies are seeing a milder course with Omikron

But since then, omicron has also spread to Europe, hitting Great Britain and Denmark heavily, among others. There are meanwhile also studies from these countries that let you breathe a sigh of relief. A study by Imperial College in London also confirmed a milder course.

Now there is another large-scale preprint study on Omikron, which makes the German virologist Alexander Kekulé optimistic.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley (USA) have analyzed the data of around 70,000 corona cases for their new study.

Of these, around 50,000 were infected with Omikron and around 20,000 with Delta.

The infected all came from California.

Among other things, the risk of hospitalization, admission to the intensive care unit and the risk of death after infection were examined.

The study has already been published but has not yet been reviewed by other scientists.

Corona study on Omikron: Significantly lower risk of hospitalization or death

The researchers came to the following results: Only 1.8 percent of those examined were hospitalized.

Of these, 235 were omicron cases (0.5 percent) and 222 delta cases (1.3 percent).

The likelihood of getting to the hospital with Omikron,

is therefore around 52 percent lower than at Delta.

The risk of intensive medical treatment was also 74 percent lower for Omikron infected people than for Delta. Mortality (risk of death after infection) was even 91 percent lower with the Omikron variant. The study also found that the mean length of hospital stay in hospitalized patients with Omikron variant infections was 3.4 days shorter than that in hospitalized patients with Delta variant infections. The researchers speak of a shortening of the length of stay in hospital by about 70 percent.

In their conclusion, the scientists write: "During a period of mixed delta and omicron variant circulation, Sars-CoV-2 infections with suspected omicron variant infection were associated with a significantly reduced risk of severe disease and shorter hospital stays."

Virologist Kekulé shares Omikron study - and calls for the abolition of quarantine for symptom-free contacts

Kekulé shared the results of the study on Twitter and wrote: "According to this further study (preprint) it is clear that Omikron is significantly milder than Delta."

Despite the milder course, Omikron remains dangerous because of its rapid spread.

Germany even set new records for new infections.

In the event that the number of infections in the Omikron wave increases even faster, Alexander Kekulé has given the opportunity to abolish the tracking and quarantine of symptom-free contact persons.

According to him, people with symptoms and confirmed infections should continue to be consistently isolated, as he explained on Tuesday at MDR Aktuell.

However, in view of a situation with very high case numbers, Kekulé described it as "completely excluded that the health department will then identify all contact persons".

He would "seriously consider the possibility" of giving up the follow-up.