No sign Omicron COVID-19 variant more severe, early South Africa data shows

South African scientists said Friday early data shows the Omicron variant does not pose an increase in severity, though they warn more data is needed for a definitive answer.

South African scientists see no sign that the Omicron COVID-19 variant is causing more severe illness, they said on Friday, as officials announced plans to roll out vaccine boosters with daily infections approaching an all-time high.

South Africa alerted the world to Omicron late last month, prompting alarm that the highly mutated variant could trigger a new surge in global infections.

Hospital data show that COVID-19 admissions are now rising sharply in more than half of the country’s nine provinces, but deaths are not rising as dramatically and indicators such as the median length of hospital stay are reassuring.

Although scientists say more time is needed to arrive at a definitive conclusion, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the signs on severity were positive.

“Preliminary data does suggest that while there is increasing rate of hospitalization … it looks like it is purely because of the numbers rather than as a result of any severity of the variant itself, this Omicron,” he said.

South Africa reported more than 22,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a record during the current fourth wave of infections driven by Omicron but still below a peak of more than 26,000 daily cases during a third wave fuelled by the Delta variant.

It has fully vaccinated about 38 per cent of adults, more than in many other African countries but well short of the government’s year-end target. It recently delayed some vaccine deliveries due to oversupply as the pace of inoculations slowed.

Health department deputy director-general Nicholas Crisp said on Friday that boosters of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine would be available to people six months after they had received their second dose, with the first people becoming eligible late this month.