Washington: The Omicron variant is significantly less severe than other variants of COVID-19. This has been claimed in a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the agency, the risk of hospitalization due to Omicron is half that of the risk of the delta variant, reports the Daily Mail.
Hospitalized people are 75 percent less likely to need to be admitted to intensive care or ICU than Delta, and the death rate is 91 percent lower than Delta.
Although it has long been reported by health officials and experts in the past that the Omicron variant is not so lethal as compared to its earlier variants. Due to this, only a few deaths have occurred in Britain, Australia, America and India.
Currently, the US is reporting an average of 750,515 new cases every day and the second biggest jump in daily reported cases since the start of the pandemic, but fortunately, the number of cases Deaths are being recorded less in proportion to the number. Each day, 1,716 deaths due to the virus have been reported, which is less than Delta.
Although there has been a three-fold increase in the record number of cases of this variant in recent weeks, deaths have not occurred at the same rate.
CDC chief Rochelle Valensky told a news conference on Wednesday that the recent 10 percent increase in Covid deaths in the US is actually due to the delta variant, not the overlying Omicron strain.
CDC data also estimates that 98 percent of active COVID cases in the US are of the Omicron variant.
The delta variant, which dominated in 2021, is now seen in only two per cent of the cases, the report said.
If this new variant spreads rapidly and is unlikely to cause death, it may begin to percolate through the population quickly and hopefully begin to subside soon.
The report said experts and health officials expect the recent surge due to the variant to indicate its decline. With this, the chances of people getting infected in the coming weeks can be reduced.
first published:Jan. 13, 2022, 10:26 p.m.
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