Fewer Omicron patients needing intensive care

Only 0.1 per cent of cases in NSW and 0.3 per cent of cases in Victoria have required urgent treatment.

The minuscule rates of hospitalisation emerged as a new study revealed Omicron could help people mount an immune response against Delta.

Intensive care admissions from the Omicron variant have been minuscule, with only 0.1 per cent of cases in NSW and 0.3 per cent of cases in Victoria needing urgent treatment.

Scott Morrison said on Wednesday that 126 Covid-positive people were in intensive care units and 55 needed ventilators; that is out of 18,243 new cases announced nationally.

As of Wednesday, only 61 of NSW’s active 61,332 Covid-19 cases were in intensive care and 62 of Victoria’s 19,994 active cases were in ICU.

The percentage of Covid-19 cases sent to the ICU dropped from 2 per cent in the year to September 12, to 1.1 per cent in the year to November 21.

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the low hospitalisation rate was due to a world-leading vaccination rate and the fact Omicron did not appear to lead to as serious illness as previous Covid-19 variants.

“In terms of the severity … we know now that it is very likely this is less severe than other forms of the virus,” Professor Kelly said. “How much less severe is still an open question. I’ve seen estimates from 15 per cent less severe to 80 per cent less severe.”

But he warned the ICU wards were still dominated by the unvaccinated. “Boosters are important, but can I please – as I say at almost every press conference – implore anyone who has not yet had their primary doses of vaccine to reconsider that decision,” he said.

“Here in NSW, two-thirds of people in ICU are unvaccinated. They are, that is still the very highest risk.”

The minuscule rates of hospitalisation emerged as a new study revealed Omicron could help people mount an immune response against Delta.

The study by Africa Health Research Institute professor Alex Sigal showed the 15 participants developed an “enhanced immunity” against Delta if they had contracted Omicron.

“The increase in Delta variant neutralisation in individuals infected with Omicron may result in decreased ability of Delta to reinfect those individuals,” he said.