South African data suggests Omicron outbreak has caused less severe disease

Scientists warn, however, that lower severity of cases is not fully understood and may not occur elsewhere

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South Africa has reported data on Covid cases driven by the Omicron variant that appears to give added impetus to claims the country is experiencing a lower severity of disease.

In South Africa, this is the epidemiology: Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe," said Prof Cheryl Cohen of the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), one of the authors of the study.