(HealthDay News) — The omicron BA.2 subvariant seems to be less severe than the delta variant and the original omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
Zachary H. Strasser, MD, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare the adjusted risks of mortality, hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, and invasive ventilation between the BA.2 subvariant and the original omicron and delta variants after accounting for confounding variables.
Data were included for 102,315 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, including 20,770 labeled as delta variants, 52,605 as omicron B.1.1.529 variants, and 28,940 as omicron BA.2 subvariants.
Continue Reading
The mortality rate was 0.7% with delta, 0.4% with omicron B.1.1.529, and 0.3% with omicron BA.2. The adjusted odds ratio of mortality was 2.07 for the delta variant and 2.20 for the original omicron variant, compared with the omicron BA.2 subvariant. The omicron BA.2 subvariant was significantly less severe for all outcomes than the omicron and delta variants.
“While the SARS-CoV-2 virus always has the potential to mutate to a more deadly form, when you look at the recent trajectory of delta, omicron BA.1, to omicron BA.2, the virus seems to be getting intrinsically less severe,” Dr Strasser said in a statement. “Hopefully, this trend will continue.”
