New research adds to growing evidence that the omicron COVID-19 variant may be less likely to cause serious disease compared to Delta. While the new variant is proving to be much more transmissible than the delta virus, it appears to pose a lower infection risk inside the lungs.

The study from the UK, Japan, and South Africa shows that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine were not enough to provide adequate protection from omicron.

However, when Pfizer recipients were given a booster, there was improved antibody response against the new variant, although that could wane over time.

“In South Africa, this is the epidemiological situation: Omicron behaves in a way that is less serious,” said Cheryl Cohen, a professor at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), one of the authors of the new study.

“Together with our data, this implies a positive picture of reduced severity of Omicron compared to other strains,” Cohen said at a news conference with a team of NICD scientists.

Meanwhile, her colleague, Dr. Waasila Jassat, pointed out that data on covid-19 cases, hospitalisations, and deaths from the current wave of the epidemic in South Africa seem to suggest that the Omicron strain causes less serious disease, but stressed that more work needs to be done in order for scientists to understand the reason.

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