Omicron Covid Variant: Omicron has raised global fears of a surge in Covid infections. (File)
The risk of needing to stay in hospital for patients with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is 40% to 45% lower than for patients with the Delta variant, according to research by London's Imperial College published on Wednesday.
"Overall, we find evidence of a reduction in the risk of hospitalisation for Omicron relative to Delta infections, averaging over all cases in the study period," the researchers said of the study, which analysed data from PCR-test confirmed cases in England between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14.