Scientists said any decrease in Omicron infection severity needs to be considered against the speed of infection of Omicron versus Delta.
The United Kingdom reported that 132 patients with Omicron have been admitted to hospitals as of December 20, 14 of whom died.
However, the agency warned the findings are"preliminary and highly uncertain" due to the small amount of Omicron patients in hospitals and the fact that a majority of them are younger. The 14 patients who have died were between the ages of 52 and 96. Omicron is the dominant strain in Britain currently, with cases having increased over 50 percent in a week. On Thursday, Britain had 119,789 reported cases of COVID, the highest number in the pandemic and the second day the number has surpassed 100,000.
UKHSA chief executive Jenny Harries said the analysis"shows an encouraging early signal that people who contract the Omicron variant may be at a relatively lower risk of hospitalization than those who contract other variants."
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