Gauteng South Africa – hospital load significantly lower than delta

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@pieterstreicher

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Gauteng #Omicron update – 8 December:

The load on hospitals is significantly lower compared to Delta, and with a peak imminent, hospitals will not be overloaded at all.

No restrictions are needed to help hospitals in any way.

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The total number of patients in hospital is well below the Delta wave.

Since a peak in hospital numbers is expected in 12-22 days, this variable is not a concern anymore.

data source: NICD

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The portion of hospital patients ending up in ICU is much lower (10%) compared to Delta (24%).

Considering that a significant portion of patients in hospital have not been infected before, or are not vaccinated, #Omicron must be significantly less virulent.

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The portion of hospital patients ending up on ventilators is even lower (3-4%) compared to Delta (10%).

Note that the ratios for Delta were similar for Beta and the wild type virus. #Omicron is the first variant with such a dramatic drop in disease severity.

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Thanks to @jburnmurdoch for also highlighting this signficant drop with #Omicron .

There are additional factors such as lower ages of admissions that also reduce disease severity, but age alone cannot explain the significant drop.

https://t.co/v9Pn77UUh1

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Countries are quick to implement travel bans, but take months to lift them.

Every vulnerable person infected with Delta before Omicron has a higher mortality risk, even if fully vaccinated.

Since we have leaky vaccines, a certain level of infections are inevitable.

Originally tweeted by pieterstreicher (@pieterstreicher) on December 8, 2021.