No evidence on Omicron being less severe than Delta COVID variant, suggests new UK study

A new study conducted by the UK's Imperial College London has revealed that there is no evidence to support the claims that suggest the Omicron variant is any less severe than the previous delta variant. Conducted in a time frame between November 29 and December 11, the study constitutes the data from the U.K. Health Security Agency and the U.K.’s health service for all confirmed COVID cases in England. As per a CNBC report, lead researcher of the study, Neil Ferguson said in his blog that, "The study finds no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta, judged by either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection". 

However, there remain certain loopholes in the study as it remains to be reviewed and the data was based on patients who were suspected to have contracted the Omicron variant. Although, the study also notes that the chances of reinfection from the Omicron variant are 5.4 times higher than the Delta variant and that the protection against the same due to past infection is as low as 19%.

According to the study, the data, on which the conclusion is based, was gathered from people identified as having Omicron infection due to an S gene target failure (SGTF), meaning those who are likely to be infected with another variant, along with people showing symptoms associated with Omicron. The analysis involved 196,463 people without the SGTF, 11,329 cases with the SGTF and 122,063 Delta and 1,846 Omicron cases.

As per the results of the study, the proportion of Omicron among all COVID cases was found doubling every two days as of December 11, and that one affected person was causing infection to three others.  Ferguson was further reported as saying, "This study provides further evidence of the very substantial extent to which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection or vaccination. This level of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health". 

Omicron status in India

As of December 20, the total tally of Omicron cases has crossed the 150 mark after Karnataka verified five more cases on Sunday pushing the state's overall Omicron confirmed cases to 19. In addition to this, Maharashtra has been witnessing the highest number of Omicron cases with 54 infections, while Delhi has 22, Rajasthan with 17, and Karnataka in 19, Telangana with 20, Gujarat and Kerala with 11, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu with 1, whereas West Bengal has recorded 4, as per central and state officials. On December 2, the first two instances of Omicron in India were detected, one in a South African national who had left the country and the other is a resident, a doctor with no travel history. 

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