Omicron variant less harmful, say experts
OMICRON patients do not appear to be suffering with more severe symptoms, South African doctors have said.
Medics treating some of the world’s first cases said most were experiencing mild illness, despite signs that the variant is more infectious.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, an adviser to the country’s government, said Omicron appeared to be more able to infect people who were vaccinated or had past infection.
But he added: “Based on what we know and how the other variants of concern have reacted to vaccine immunity, we can expect that we will still see high effectiveness for hospitalisation and severe disease, and that protection of the vaccines is likely to remain strong.”
Prof Abdool Karim told a news conference Omicron was so far causing mild symptoms, including a dry cough, fever and night sweats. He also said he expected the variant to drive new daily infections in South Africa above 10,000 before the end of the week, from less than 3,000 on Sunday.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, who chairs the South African Medical Association, said the cases she had seen at the epicentre of the outbreak were “extremely mild” and there were differences compared to previous strains.
Unlike with the Delta variant, Omicron patients had not reported loss of smell or taste and there has been no major drop in oxygen levels, she said.
She added: “The most predominant clinical complaint was severe fatigue for one or two days.With them, the headache and the body aches and pain.”
South Africa’s health minister said there was “absolutely no need to panic” despite the recent surge in cases.
Joe Phaahla said the country had been in a similar position before when it detected cases of the Beta variant last December so this “is no new territory for us”.
German epidemiologist Professor Karl Lauterbach suggested the variant could even turn out to be “an early Christmas present” if it causes milder symptoms than previous strains. But he cautioned that South Africa had a younger population and countries in Europe have more older people at higher risk from Covid.
Clive Dix, former chief of the UK Vaccines Taskforce, said he was “not that concerned” about Omicron as it was unlikely to evade vaccines significantly enough to cause a large increase in hospitalisations and deaths.
He added: “This is very unlikely to be anything other than another variant, just like the Kent one was, just like the Delta one was.
“I think our vaccines will hold up to it and I think we’ll be fine.”
But Mr Dix also warned that Omicron should be a “wake-up call” about the need to prepare for development of new vaccines to target variants.