Evidence continues to mount that omicron tends to result in milder COVID cases

Scientists are continuing to present evidence that the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 appears to result mostly in milder COVID cases, news that comes as much of the world watches anxiously to see if the new mutation will generate another wave of the virus.

South African doctor Dr. Unben Pillay told the Associated Press that he hasn’t had to send any omicron COVID patients to the hospital, and that most “have recovered within the 10 to 14-day isolation period.”

Willem Hanekom, the director of the Africa Health Research Institute, meanwhile, told the news wire that “at the moment, virtually everything points toward it being milder disease,” though he cautioned that “we need to get the final data.”

In the U.S., the CDC reported that “many of the first reported cases of Omicron variant infection appear to be mild,” though they too warned that the data is still incomplete. 

Notably, a large majority of patients observed so far with the omicron variant were vaccinated prior to having contracted it.