Omicron causing less severe illness in Southern California patients, study suggests

New knowledge from Southern California are offering additional proof that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is inflicting much less extreme sickness than its Delta cousin, the perpetrator behind final summer time’s wave.

A preliminary examine based mostly on medical data from almost 70,000 Kaiser Permanente Southern California sufferers “famous considerably lowered danger of extreme scientific outcomes in sufferers who’re contaminated with the Omicron variant in contrast with Delta,” stated Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

The examine — which included greater than 52,000 Omicron instances and almost 17,000 Delta instances inside the Kaiser system from Nov. 30 to Jan. 1 — found that, in contrast with sufferers contaminated with Delta, those that had Omicron had been 53% much less prone to be hospitalized with COVID-19, 74% much less prone to be admitted to the intensive care unit, and 91% much less prone to die of the illness.

Amongst sufferers who had been hospitalized, the median size of keep was 1.5 days for sufferers contaminated with Omicron and 5 days for many who had Delta.

One other signal of Omicron’s lighter contact: Not one of the sufferers who had it required mechanical air flow.

The findings had been posted Tuesday on MedRxiv, an internet site on which researchers share preliminary outcomes. The examine has not been reviewed by unbiased scientists.

“The info on this examine stay per what we’re seeing from Omicron in different international locations, together with South Africa and the U.Ok., and supply some understanding of what we are able to anticipate over the approaching weeks as instances are predicted to peak on this nation,” Walensky stated throughout a briefing Wednesday.

The brand new examine is the most recent to point Omicron is milder, on the entire, in contrast with Delta. Nonetheless, the variant is spreading extensively and hospitals are seeing an inflow of coronavirus-positive sufferers.

Omicron is the dominant coronavirus pressure within the U.S., accounting for an estimated 98% of latest instances nationwide, in line with the CDC.

Los Angeles County’s hospitals are straining to supply medical care, hobbled by staffing shortages far worse than final winter’s coronavirus surge.

Many healthcare employees, burned out by the pandemic, have stop, and plenty of who stay have examined constructive for the virus and are at house isolating. And healthcare amenities are busier this yr as a result of there’s extra demand for non-COVID-19 care.

Within the face of the most recent surge in instances, Kaiser Permanente Southern California is briefly suspending all elective surgical procedures that require a keep within the hospital, it introduced Wednesday.

The hospital system will proceed to carry out emergency surgical procedures, pressing procedures together with these involving most cancers sufferers or folks whose medical situation could be worsened by a delay, and elective outpatient surgical procedures that don’t require an in a single day keep within the hospital, its regional director of medical high quality, Dr. Nancy Gin, stated.

“We’ll proceed to do all the pieces we are able to to reduce the influence on our members and the general public,” Gin stated.