People infected with the Ómicron variant have a 75% lower risk of hospital admission than people infected with the Delta variant, said the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), this Friday, 4 February.
This is the conclusion of a study carried out by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) and the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), with the collaboration of the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS), the Central Administration of the Health (ACSS), Unilabs laboratories, the Portuguese Red Cross and the Algarve Biomedical Center.
As the DGS explains, this epidemiological study on the Covid-19 pandemic, which was carried out in a similar way to that of similar agencies of Ministries of Health in other European Union countries, reveals that, “for every 100 people hospitalized who were infected with the Delta variant, only 25 people would be hospitalized if they had been infected with the Ómicron variant, regardless of age, sex, vaccination status and having had a previous infection”.
The study also shows that people infected with Ómicron have, on average, shorter hospital stays and a lower risk of dying. Study details can be consulted on the platform MedRXiv.
The DGS reveals that “the first reports of animal and laboratory studies showed that Ómicron could be less serious. These results were supported by human studies conducted in the UK. However, the magnitude of the reduced risk of hospitalization and mortality from Omicron infections compared to Delta has not yet been fully clarified.”
This study now released, carried out with people residing in Portugal in the month of December, «showed encouraging results that support the findings of similar studies carried out in other countries», the organization also emphasizes.
Even so, «Ómicron is associated with a greater ability to partially escape the protection of the complete vaccination schedule and with a high transmissibility, translated into a greater absolute number of cases, so even with reduced severity, there may be a risk of overloading the system of health. Therefore, the Directorate-General for Health continues to recommend booster vaccination and regular testing, in order to keep the effects of the pandemic on the health system under control», concludes DGS.w
Comments