WHO sees signs Omicron is milder than Delta

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that “some evidence” indicates the most recently detected COVID-19 variant, Omicron, causes “milder disease” than the Delta strain.

However, he stressed “it’s still too early to be definitive” on the matter and called on countries around the world to submit their data on Omicron. “Certain features of Omicron, including its global spread and a large number of mutations suggest it could have a major impact on the course of the pandemic,” Tedros warned but added that existing vaccines seem to be effective against the new strain.

Earlier, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that all Omicron infections “for which there is available information on severity were either asymptomatic or mild.”