Omicron Variant May Cause Less Severe Disease: Report

A patient is treated in a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa in a file photograph. Sumaya Hisham/Reuters

The Omicron virus variant may lead to less severe cases of COVID-19 than earlier strains, according to data from South Africa, where the variant was first identified last month.

Most of the hospitalized patients admitted with COVID-19 did not need oxygen, a contrast to earlier in the pandemic, the South African Medical Research Council said in a new report.