Since the invention of the closely mutated omicron variant in November, scientists have been racing to search out out whether or not it causes much less critical illness and why it seems extra contagious than the beforehand dominating delta variant.
A virus might be extra transmissible attributable to quite a lot of causes, such because the time it lingers within the air, its capacity to latch onto cells, or its evasion of the physique’s immune system.
Investigating almost 12,000 Danish households in mid-December, the scientists discovered that omicron was 2.7 to three.7 occasions extra infectious than the delta variant amongst vaccinated Danes.
The study, carried out by researchers at University of Copenhagen, Statistics Denmark and Statens Serum Institut (SSI), suggests the virus is especially spreading extra quickly as a result of it’s better at evading immunity obtained from vaccines.
“Our findings confirm that the rapid spread of the omicron (variant) primarily can be ascribed to the immune evasiveness rather than an inherent increase in the basic transmissibility,” the researchers mentioned. The study has but to be peer-reviewed.
Seventy-eight % of Danes have been totally vaccinated, whereas almost 48% of these have acquired a 3rd “boosted” shot. More than eight out of ten Danes have acquired Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine.
The study additionally discovered that booster-vaccinated persons are much less more likely to transmit the virus, whatever the variant, than the unvaccinated.
While extra transmissible, the omicron variant does appear to induce much less critical illness, SSI’s technical director, Tyra Grove Krause, advised native media on Monday.
“While omicron will still be able to put pressure on our healthcare system, everything indicates that it is milder than the delta variant,” she mentioned, including the danger of being hospitalised with omicron was half of that with delta.
That echoes the outcomes of another research into omicron.
Out of a complete of 93 folks admitted to hospital attributable to COVID-19 from omicron in late December, much less than 5 had been receiving intensive care, Danish knowledge confirmed.
“This may be what is going to lift us out of the pandemic, so that this becomes the last wave of corona,” Krause mentioned.
