Reinfection risk from Omicron 16 times higher than Delta, data indicates

The risk of reinfection from the Omicron COVID variant is 16 times higher than Delta, new figures indicate.

Latest COVID-19 data from the Office for National Statistics shows the rate for all reinfections has increased since early December 2021 – likely driven by the rapid spread of the new strain.

Between 20 December 2021 and 9 January 2022, Omicron was the dominant coronavirus variant and the risk of reinfection was 16 times higher compared with the seven-month period from 17 May to 19 December 2021 when Delta was the main variant, the ONS said.

The finding comes weeks after the first real-world study of Omicron’s effect suggested it has a “substantial” ability to evade immunity from a previous COVID infection.

During the six months from 2 July 2020 to 9 January 2022, people who were unvaccinated were twice as likely to be reinfected than people who had their second vaccine 14 to 89 days ago, the latest ONS analysis suggested.

While the incredibly rapid spread of the Omicron variant has caused surges in mortality, the emerging data, even from countries with low vaccination coverage, is that the Omicron wave is less deadly than previous ones.

And the more infectious variant will have increased levels of COVID-19 immunity – improved by the vaccine rollout and booster programme.

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Easing of Plan B COVID restrictions in England

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce the lifting of some Plan B restrictions, which were introduced before Christmas amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

The current rules – which include guidance to work from home, COVID passes and mandatory masks in shops and on public transport – are due to expire on 26 January.

According to reports, the PM could opt to retain the mask-wearing requirement while scrapping the work-from-home guidance and COVID passes.

Scotland will remove all of its Omicron coronavirus restrictions from next Monday, Nicola Sturgeon announced on Tuesday.

The changes will see nightclubs reopen, the requirement for table service in hospitality come to an end and attendance limits on indoor events lifted.

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End of pandemic ‘in sight’

An NHS frontline consultant, who has blogged about his work during the pandemic, said he believed the Omicron wave was “waning”.

Dr Richard Cree, an intensive care consultant at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital, wrote in his nomoresurgeons.com blog: “Despite the strain that the hospital is currently under, I am confident that the worst will soon be behind us and that the end is now in sight.”

He said that while the number of COVID-positive patients peaked at the hospital on Tuesday at 176, which is more than it saw during the first wave back in April 2020, “far fewer patients are unwell like they were back then”.

“The COVID wards are no longer full of people struggling to breathe,” he said.

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