Evidence on how much the omicron variant of the coronavirus differs from its predecessors is still very contradictory. A small study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms the hypothesis that the new “mutant” may be less dangerous. However, it's too early to jump to conclusions…
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The CDC report describes a case of infection of six family members from Nebraska. A 48-year-old man was infected with the omicron variant during a trip to Nigeria, after his return, his relatives were infected. Five of them had previously had COVID-19, one was fully vaccinated, but did not receive revaccination.
All re-infected family members survived the omicron variant more easily compared to the first infection. None of them lost their sense of taste or smell, although four of them experienced these symptoms after being infected with other variants of the virus. One of the family members, who had not previously been ill with COVID-19 and was not revaccinated, had an infection with the “classic” symptoms of coronavirus – fever, cough, nasal congestion, chills, joint pain.
Most importantly, none of those infected required hospitalization. This data is consistent with a recent report from the University of Edinburgh that hospital admissions in November-December during the rise of the omicron variant in Scotland were about two-thirds lower than at the peak of delta dominance.
According to CDC experts, the incubation period for infection with the omicron variant is noticeably shorter compared to its predecessors – an average of three days. The delta variant has an incubation period of four days or more.
Scientists warned that due to the small sample size of the study, it is too early to draw conclusions about the characteristics of the omicron variant and further observations are needed.
Earlier, experts at Imperial College London compared data from 11,300 people in England infected with or suspected of having the omicron variant with about 200,000 patients infected with delta or other variants of SARS-CoV-2. They analyzed the rate of spread of the virus, the number of symptomatic cases and the number of hospitalizations due to complications. “We don't see any evidence that omicron has a lower severity than delta in the number of positive patients , or by the number of people who seek inpatient treatment,” the researchers wrote at the time.