Comparative analysis of the risks of hospitalisation and death associated with SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1.529) and delta (B.1.617.2) variants in England: a cohort study
Publication: The Lancet
Tommy Nyberg, Prof Neil M Ferguson, Sophie G Nash, Harriet H Webster, Seth Flaxman, Nick Andrews, Wes Hinsley, Jamie Lopez Bernal, Meaghan Kall, Prof Samir Bhatt, Paula Blomquist,
Asad Zaidi, Erik Volz, Nurin Abdul Aziz, Katie Harman, Prof Sebastian Funk, Sam Abbott, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, Russell Hope, Andre Charlett, Meera Chand, Prof Azra C Ghani, Shaun R Seaman,
17 March 2022
Summary
The omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrated partial vaccine escape and high transmissibility, with early studies indicating lower severity of infection than that of the delta variant (B.1.617.2). We aimed to better characterise omicron severity relative to delta by assessing the relative risk of hospital attendance, hospital admission, or death in a large national cohort.