The omicron variant of Covid-19 may be less likely to land patients in the hospital than the delta strain, according to three studies of preliminary data. Researchers in Scotland suggest the variant is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization when compared with the earlier mutation, though omicron was 10 times more likely to infect people who’d already had the virus. There’s more on the accumulating evidence that omicron seems weaker than its predecessors. —David E. Rovella
Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.
