Researchers in South Africa say that even though the Omicron variant of coronavirus spreads quickly, the resulting infection may be less severe than other forms of Covid-19.

Doctors at a major hospital complex in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, reported that coronavirus patients with the variant were less sick than those they had treated before.

They indicated that their Covid-19 wards were almost unrecognizable from previous phases of the pandemic, with few patients on oxygen machines.

Most of the infected patients were admitted for other reasons and had no Covid symptoms, they said. Despite the surge of positive cases, the number of deaths in South Africa has not yet risen.  

Statistics in South Africa show that of the 166 patients with the coronavirus admitted from November 14 to November 29 to the hospital complex, the average stay was 2.8 days, and fewer than 7 per cent died.

This is while over the previous 18 months, the average stay for such patients was 8.5 days, and 17 per cent died.

However, scientists are cautioned against putting their guards off, much as the findings are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed.

Governments are advised to strike a balance between the potential good news of less severity, and bad news like early evidence that previous infection offers little immunity to Omicron.

The new variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on 24 November 2021 and was named during a WHO meeting that took place on Friday, November 25, bringing together scientists to assess the new variant.

It has spread rapidly and has been detected in more than 30 countries on six continents so far.

In East Africa, Uganda is the first country to confirm cases of Omicron variant in the country. The country confirmed nine cases on December 7. 

Rwanda hasn’t recorded any single case of the new variant, but Rwanda Biomedical Centre warned citizens about the variant and encouraged them to continue taking Covid-19 precautionary measures.

The government has temporarily banned direct flights between Kigali and the southern African region as part of the new measures to control the Omicron variant of Covid-19 from spreading into the country.

However, the Ministry of Health has also imposed a seven-day quarantine on passengers coming from or had travel history in nine southern African countries.

These are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.