Covid: Omicron less likely to put you in the hospital, say studies

The growing body of research provides preliminary reassurance that the omicron wave that's inundating many parts of the world and sparking new records may be comparatively less dangerous than delta

The highly-mutated omicron variant appears less likely to land patients in the hospital with Covid-19 than the delta strain, according to preliminary data from a trio of studies. 

Researchers in Scotland found omicron was associated with a two-thirds lower risk of hospitalization compared to the earlier variant, though it was 10 times more likely than delta to infect people who’d already had Covid. An Imperial College London team working with a larger data set found that people with omicron were almost half as likely to need an overnight hospital stay.

The fresh data add to a study showing South Africans were 70%