Omicron: A Milder Variant?

 

A preliminary study from UK and South Africa, according to the news said that the new variant of the COVID-19 which is Omicron is not like its predecessor Delta that is it is milder and don’t require for infected person to go to hospital. The percentage of people according to study that don’t require hospitalization is between 70%-80% which proves the variant is not that strong to put infected person into hospital.

“"Compellingly, together our data really suggest a positive story of a reduced severity of Omicron compared to other variants," said Prof Cheryl Cohen of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, in South Africa.”(BBC)

 

“Dr Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first alerted authorities to the presence of the new COVID-19 variant, has described the symptoms of Omicron as both “very, very mild” compared with those of the Delta variant, and different to it. She has described muscle aches, fatigue, a scratchy throat and night sweats as common Omicron symptoms.” (Aljazeera)

 

The reason for being milder according to the news is the variant’s fundamental properties plus the combination of high percentage of vaccinated people which according to the news have immunity to the COVID-19 disease.

 

However, according to the news, the severity and the potential of the new variant omicron is still on the ongoing study.

 

But the World Health Organization (WHO) said the other way and warn those conclusions that omicron is a milder variant and shows concern for the unvaccinated people because they are not vaccinated.

 

“The World Health Organization's chief scientist said on Monday it was too early to conclude the Omicron variant was milder than other coronavirus strains, saying it could still make enough people sick to "overburden" healthcare systems."...It is probably unwise to sit back and think this is a mild variant, it's not going to cause severe disease, because I think with the numbers going up all health systems are going to be under strain," Soumya Swaminathan told Geneva-based journalists. She added that this perception appeared to be based on initial data out of parts of South Africa which might give a misleading impression due to high levels of existing immunity among the population..” (Reuters)

“But Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) health emergencies programme, believes, “There’s no doubt that the rising number and the force of infection will generation more hospitalisations in the coming weeks.” Speaking at an Irish Aid webinar hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), he said: “What I’m most concerned about right now today, is the fact that there are unvaccinated people in every country, who are at high risk.””(Aljazeera)