Posted on 12/16/2021 10:12:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It’s interesting with Delta, we saw death rates start bumping up within 10 days of infection rate increases. I’m watching SA daily for a bump.
It does look good so far, that Omicron is likely much less severe than Delta. I am just cautious. If we should prepare for a big surge, time is short.
In South Africa, it is looking like far fewer Omicron cases end up in the hospital as compared to Delta (I’ve seen reports from 1/10th to 1/3rd, proportionally), and when they do, it is significantly briefer (2-3 day norm) and on average less severe.
Dr. Phaala, the senior medical official of the South African Government also noted that a segment of those hospitalized with Omicron would not have been severe enough to be admitted during the capacity constraints they had during their Delta wave.
I see reports today that while Omicron replicates much faster in the upper bronchi and throat than Delta (70x! probably contributing to infectiousness), it is only about 1/10th as effective at replicating in the lung cells, which may contribute to lesser severity.
That is good news, I am on leave and didn’t do the daily COVID scrub.
We are seeing the end of our Delta wave in our area and it was brutal. We are due for some good luck.
I’ll run our numbers this weekend and look for trends, I think I’m seeing the first evidence of Omicron in the data.
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