JOHANNESBURG, Dec 22 — Data on Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths in South Africa’s current wave of infections, driven by the Omicron variant, suggest lower severity but more work is needed to understand why, a scientist studying the data said today.

"The lower risk or lower proportions of severe disease we’re seeing in the fourth wave could be due to a number of factors including the level of prior immunity from people who’ve already gotten vaccinated or had natural infection, or it could also be due to the intrinsic virulence of Omicron,” said Dr Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

"But we need more studies to be able to unpack these things,” she said during a news conference by a group of NICD scientists. — Reuters