According to a new study out of South Africa, the Omicron variant is 80% less likely to send individuals to the hospital than previous strains.
The pre-print study from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases found that Omicron has a 70% less risk of severe disease, though once a patient is hospitalized, the risk of severe disease is the same as previous strains, the Daily Caller reports.
Scientists compared data on Omicron infections to Delta infections between April and November.
The study’s authors pointed out that the differences could be due to higher levels of immunization over the last several months rather than differences in the variants themselves.
So far, there has only been one confirmed death in the United States from the Omicron variant.
