According to South African health experts, the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causes milder symptoms compared to variants such as Delta and Beta.
Graphic representation of Omicron, the variant first reported to the World Health Organization from South Africa on November 24. (Image: Getty Images)
The Director of the South African Health Research Institute, Willem Hanekom, stated that three epidemiological groups in South Africa have been monitoring the impact of the new variant. They compared the first two weeks of the current wave with the first two weeks of previous infection waves associated with the Beta and Delta variants. They found that “the disease is milder at this stage.”
However, Hanekom noted that the spread rate of the Omicron variant in South Africa is “much faster” than that of the Beta and Delta variants. 95% of the 20,000 new infections reported daily in South Africa are due to the Omicron variant.
Hanekom is also a co-author of a study indicating that Omicron could reduce the antibody production capacity by 41 times after full vaccination with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
In an interview with The Wire, Hanekom mentioned that several studies conducted by other groups also show a similar reduction in antibody production in individuals infected with Omicron after being fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
