Prof Chris Whitty (above), England\u2019s chief medical officer, warned that even if Omicron turned out to be relatively mild high case numbers could still lead to pressure on the NHS.<\/p>\n
EXPERTS predict Omicron will have fizzled out in South Africa within weeks in a huge boost to morale in the UK.<\/p>\n
Infections have spiralled in the past week and admissions failed to reach expected levels, as hospitals \u201cnever reached capacity\u201d.<\/p>\n
It bodes well for the UK – currently in the grips of an Omicron<\/a> outbreak, which is not yet reflected in nationwide hospital or death data.<\/p>\n A string of hugely positive studies<\/a> show Omicron IS milder than other strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta<\/a>.<\/p>\n Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.<\/p>\n The Sun’s Jabs Army<\/a> campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits’ arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions.<\/p>\n There is hope New Year\u2019s Eve, at least, could be saved from more rules thanks to bombshell studies on the severity of Omicron disease.<\/p>\n England’s top doctor has previously said he “anticipates” the UK’s peak to come very fast, while dropping quickly afterwards, as seen in South Africa.<\/p>\n South African scientists are confident the Omicron outbreak there is receding and may last a total of just a couple of months.<\/p>\n There was a sudden steep rise in cases from close to zero in mid-November to an average of 10,000 daily cases early in December, after the variant was first detected there.<\/p>\n That then fell sharply to around 5,000 per day on average.<\/p>\n Francois Venter, a medical professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, predicted that at the current rate of decline, Omicron would \u201cbe pretty much gone\u201d from all of South Africa <\/a>by the end of January, The Times <\/a>reports.<\/p>\n Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who leads the country’s pandemic response, said he expected “almost every other [country] to follow the same trajectory”.<\/p>\n He told The Washington Post<\/a>: “If previous variants caused waves shaped like Kilimanjaro, Omicron’s is more like we were scaling the north face of Everest.”<\/p>\n But John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, said to \u201cbe careful not to extrapolate what we are seeing in South Africa across the continent, or across the world\u201d.<\/p>\n Dr Waasila Jassat, of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), said: \u201cWe saw a very rapid rise in cases and an early peak \u2014 and the indications are that since then we\u2019ve had a remarkable drop.\u201d<\/p>\n NICD\u2019s latest report shows that cases up to December 18 have dropped nationally by 20.8 per cent in one week.<\/p>\n In the Gauteng Province, which was the epicentre of the variant, cases have significantly come down by almost half (46 per cent), with drops of between six and 40 per cent in other provinces.<\/p>\n NICD’s Michelle Groome told a news briefing: “Really we feel that this has persisted for over a week and that we are past the peak in Gauteng.\u201d<\/p>\n But she cautioned there could be lower cases because people are less likely to come forward for testing during the holiday period.<\/p>\n The nation has been in \u201calert level one\u201d of a five-tier lockdown strategy since October, with mask mandates, a curfew from midnight to 4am, and ban on indoor gatherings of more than 750 people.<\/p>\n The data suggest Omicron peaked within one month of first being detected, with the impact on healthcare being less severe than previous waves.<\/p>\n While hospital admission have risen, they have so far remained far below the levels seen during previous waves of the pandemic.<\/p>\n Deaths were also and people with Omicron stay in hospital for shorter periods – suggesting, again, milder disease – Dr Jassat said.<\/p>\n She told reporters: \u201cThere\u2019s been a decoupling, with less of a rise in hospital admissions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hospitals never reached the capacity that we saw in previous waves, where you couldn\u2019t get a bed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a much lower admission rate and amongst those admitted there\u2019s a lower proportion who are severe, a lower proportion who need oxygen, a lower proportion who are treated in ICU.\u201d<\/p>\n The proportion of people admitted to hospital stood at 5.7 per cent, compared to above 13 per cent in the other waves.<\/p>\n Death rates have also come down from 19 per cent in previous waves to 5.6 per cent recently.<\/p>\n A rapid rise and fall of Omicron – as data shows is occurring in South Africa – is expected to happen in the UK, too.<\/p>\n Prof Chris Whitty, England\u2019s chief medical officer, said he expected the wave \u201cto peak really quite fast\u00a0 then come down faster than previous peaks\u201d.<\/p>\n He told the Commons Health and Social Care Committee on December 16: \u201cI think what we will see with this \u2013 and I think we are seeing it in South Africa \u2013 is that the upswing will be incredibly fast, even if people are taking more cautious actions, as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n But he has said that even if Omicron turns out to be mild<\/a>, high case numbers will still lead to pressure on the NHS.<\/p>\n And experts have repeatedly warned South Africa has a different population to the UK, which may mean the same trends don\u2019t play out.<\/p>\n Sage – the scientific advisory group to the Government – cautioned that what happens in South Africa may not translate to other countries in its most recent meeting.<\/p>\nOMI-GONE\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
DROP IN CASES<\/strong><\/h2>\n
HOSPITALS COPING<\/strong><\/h2>\n
EARLY DAYS<\/h2>\n