Omicron Patients Less Likely to Require Hospital Care: UK Study

People who get COVID-19 from the Omicron virus variant are less likely to require hospital care, according to a UK study published Wednesday.

Researchers from the Imperial College London estimated (pdf) that Omicron patients were 20- to 25-percent less likely to need hospital care and 40- to 45-percent less likely to be hospitalized for one night or more when compared to patients with the Delta variant.

They arrived at the estimates by analyzing data from all COVID-19 cases in England between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14, as determined by a positive polymerase chain reaction test.

The researchers also estimated that natural immunity, or protection from a prior infection, reduces the risk of hospitalization by 50 percent and the risk of a hospital stay of one night or more by 61 percent. People vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, meanwhile, had a similar or higher risk for hospitalization with the new strain, while people who got AstraZeneca’s vaccine had a lower risk.