COVID‐19 severity from Omicron and Delta SARS‐CoV‐2 variants

• Published in: Influenza and other respiratory viruses Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 832 - 836
• Main Authors: Wrenn, Jesse O., Pakala, Suman B., Vestal, Grant, Shilts, Meghan H., Brown, Hunter M., Bowen, Sara M., Strickland, Britton A., Williams, Timothy, Mallal, Simon A., Jones, Ian D., Schmitz, Jonathan E., Self, Wesley H., Das, Suman R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.09.2022; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Age; Body mass index; Chi-square test; Clinical outcomes; Confidence intervals; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; Delta; Ethnicity; Gene sequencing; Genomes; Health care facilities; Hispanic Americans; Hospitals; Humans; Immunization; Infections; Influenza; Laboratories; Medical records; Morbidity; Mortality; Omicron; Pandemics; Patients; Respiratory diseases; SARS-CoV-2 - genetics; SARS‐CoV‐2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; severity; Short Communication; Short Communications; Supplements; Variables; Ventilators; Viruses; Whole genome sequencing; whole genome sequencing (WGS); United States > US; COVID-19; severity; SARS-CoV-2; Omicron; Delta; whole genome sequencing (WGS)
• ISSN: 1750-2640; 1750-2659
• DOI: 10.1111/irv.12982

The Omicron variant of SARS‐CoV‐2 achieved worldwide dominance in late 2021. Early work suggests that infections caused by the Omicron variant may be less severe than those caused by the Delta variant. We sought to compare clinical outcomes of infections caused by these two strains, confirmed by whole genome sequencing, over a short period of time, from respiratory samples collected from SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients at a large medical center. We found that infections caused by the Omicron variant caused significantly less morbidity, including admission to the hospital and requirement for oxygen supplementation, and significantly less mortality than those caused by the Delta variant.