Doctors in one of the cities in South Africa said that the COVID-19 surge driven by the Omicron variant has been associated with less serious disease compared to the earlier waves, with signs that the number of cases and hospital admissions may fall over the coming few weeks.

At the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in the City of Tshwane, 466 infected patients admitted since mid-November last year were compared with 3,976 patients admitted prior to that. The mortality rate during the Omicron surge was found to be 4.5%, while it was 21.3% in the earlier period. 

Patients infected with the Omicron variant were discharged after 4 days on average, compared to 8.8 days for patients infected with the earlier variants. At the peak of the current surge, only half of the hospital beds were occupied by the infected patients compared to the figures in the earlier period. Additionally, around 63% of Omicron patients were admitted to the hospital for other reasons, and the infection was detected by mandatory tests.

The report is published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases… (Reuters, January 8, 2022)