In the absence of more hard information, governments have reacted to omicron with sharp restrictions on international travel and new vaccination requirements
A coronavirus vaccination site in Johannesburg on Dec. 2, 2021. The COVID-19 virus is spreading faster than ever in South Africa, the country’s president said Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, an indication of how contagious the new omicron variant is, but there are early indications that it may be less serious than other forms of the virus. (Joao Silva/The New York Times)
JOHANNESBURG — The COVID-19 virus is spreading faster than ever in South Africa, the country’s president said Monday, an indication of how the new omicron variant is driving the pandemic, but there are early indications that omicron may cause less-serious illness than other forms of the virus.
Researchers at a major hospital complex in Pretoria reported that their patients with the coronavirus are much less sick than those they have treated before, and that other hospitals are seeing the same trends. In fact, they said, most of their infected patients were admitted for other reasons and have no COVID symptoms.
©2019 New York Times News Service