Reduction in the infection fatality rate of Omicron variant compared with previous variants in South Africa.
Int J Infect Dis
; 120: 146-149, 2022 Jul.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1799912
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant has caused global concern. Previous studies have shown that the variant has enhanced immune evasion ability and transmissibility and reduced severity.METHODS:
In this study, we developed a mathematical model with time-varying transmission rate, vaccination, and immune evasion. We fit the model to reported case and death data up to February 6, 2022 to estimate the transmissibility and infection fatality ratio of the Omicron variant in South Africa.RESULTS:
We found that the high relative transmissibility of the Omicron variant was mainly due to its immune evasion ability, whereas its infection fatality rate substantially decreased by approximately 78.7% (95% confidence interval 66.9%, 85.0%) with respect to previous variants.CONCLUSION:
On the basis of data from South Africa and mathematical modeling, we found that the Omicron variant is highly transmissible but with significantly lower infection fatality rates than those of previous variants of SARS-CoV-2.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.ijid.2022.04.029
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS