Omicron Variant Causes Less Severe COVID, Major South African Study Concludes

Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of COVID-19 but is more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to the first major private study since omicron was first detected. The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, observed 211,000 positive cases, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron, which showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who contracted COVID-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave. However, it also found that the Pfizer vaccine provided just 33 per cent protection against infection, much less than the level for other variants detected in the country.

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