There are reasons to believe that COVID-19 patients infected with the new omicron variant of the coronavirus take it easier, the head of the technical group of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Emergency Diseases Maria Van Kerkhove has said, RIA Novosti reported.
Earlier, the WHO had said that no deaths had been reported from the new variant.
“Preliminary data show that people who are infected with the omicron strain are more likely to carry the disease more easily, but it is too early to talk about it,” Van Kerkhove told CBS. She explained that this may be due to the early stages of infection in patients.
“It may take a few weeks for us to really understand how many of those individuals (infected with the new strain) will develop a serious illness,” she said.
Van Kerkhove believes that more hospitalizations could lead to an increase in mortality. “We do not want this to happen amid the already difficult situation of the spread of the delta around the world,” she concluded, emphasizing the importance of measures to combat the spread of the infection.
