Data Suggests Omicron Less Severe Than Delta – WC Health Department

Western Cape health experts said that there was a growing body of evidence showing that the COVID-19 fourth wave had been less severe.

There’s also a growing gap between the number of infections, hospitalisations and deaths when compared to the third wave.

Ninety percent of the adult population had some form of protection against severe COVID-19 ahead of the latest wave of infections.

Medical experts said that while there were 14% more cases during the fourth wave, hospital admissions were currently at 63% of the third wave peak.

Western Cape head of Health, Doctor Keith Cloete, said that COVID-19 deaths were 24% of what they were during the peak of the third wave.

“There is now some data to suggest that Omicron may be less severe than Delta. We have now looked at our data and the majority of that is because the reduction of the severity is because of prior infection and vaccination,” Cloete said.

The proportion of COVID-19 cases with severe disease has also been lower and patients have been showing a different disease profile with less instances of COVID-19 pneumonia.