The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control CDC said on Thursday that the Omicron coronaviruses variant is 70% to 80% less severe than Delta and should not be extrapolated to all countries.
A South African study published on Wednesday found that people diagnosed with Omicron in the country in October and November were 80% less likely to be admitted to the hospital than those diagnosed with another variant in the same period.
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, told an online media briefing that we should interpret the data from South Africa with a lot of caution. Public health practice is local and this is early in the day. He said that we should not extrapolate what we are seeing in South Africa or across the world.
He said factors such as the young median age of the South African population could be playing a role in what is being observed in the country, and that differing vaccination rates could lead to different outcomes.
Two studies from Britain have shown that the risk of hospitalisation is lower with Omicron, though to a lesser extent.
An Imperial College London study found that the risk of hospital stay was 40% to 45% lower for Omicron than for Delta, while in Scotland a reduced risk of hospitalisation was also observed in an analysis of early data.
Nkengasong said that all COVID vaccines were reduced to a greater or lesser extent against Omicron, and urged Africans who were not vaccinated yet to come forward, and those who were to get their booster shots.
He said that Africa had barely reached the 10% mark in terms of the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated and that the Omicron variant is challenging all vaccines.