EurekAlert!

Studies find Omicron related hospitalisations lower in severity than Delta and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine remains effective in preventing hospitalisations

Adult hospitalisations from Omicron-related SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) were less severe than Delta and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (also known as Comirnaty and BNT162b2*) remains effective in preventing ...
New Scientist

Covid-19 vaccines should target only omicron for best immune response

“Bivalent” covid-19 vaccines based on proteins from the initial SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as well as the more recent omicron variant may be less effective than those that just target omicron, a study ...
The Conversation

How does Omicron compare with Delta? Here’s what we know about infectiousness, symptoms, severity and vaccine protection

Since Omicron was detected in South Africa in late November, the SARS-CoV-2 variant has spread to more than 165 countries and is now the dominant strain. Omicron has more mutations than other strains: ...
EurekAlert!

Evidence is currently insufficient to show omicron variant has a shorter period of infectiousness compared with previous variants

Decisions by individual countries to implement shorter isolation times for people infected with omicron are based on evidence and models of infectiousness, but also political decisions that take into ...
The Conversation

COVID hospitalisations and deaths are rising faster than cases – but that doesn’t mean more severe disease

Australia is currently in its third Omicron wave (second if you live in Western Australia). This one is caused by the subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. New variants gain an advantage over previous variants ...
Reuters

EU agency sees risk of COVID deaths rising as Omicron subvariants spread

FRANKFURT, June 13 (Reuters) - Two new subvariants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, are spreading more quickly than other corovanirus variants in Europe, which could lead to more hospitalisations and deaths ...