It is quickly, in terms of its circulation, overtaking Delta. She further cautioned that even though there is some information that Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, “it’s not a mild disease” because “people are still being hospitalised for Omicron”. The WHO update said that the Omicron variant has a substantial growth advantage and is rapidly replacing other variants. It said that in terms of disease severity, there is growing evidence that the Omicron variant is less severe as compared to other variants. The update also noted that since December, six studies have provided evidence of reduced vaccine effectiveness (VE) of COVID-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant.

Source: The Hindu January 12, 2022 12:19 UTC