Travelers walk through terminals at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, April 14, 2022.(Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
"Omicron patients who did need hospitalization faced a risk of severe disease comparable to those hospitalized with Delta," said Heba Mostafa, assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- A recent study by Johns Hopkins University warned that Omicron should not be underestimated as hospitalized patients with the Omicron variant required similar levels of respiratory support and intensive care to those carrying Delta.
For hospitalized patients with Omicron, 67.6 percent required supplemental oxygen and 17.6 percent were taken to intensive care units, while the figures for patients hospitalized with Delta were 73 percent and 25.4 percent respectively, according to a report citing the study and published Monday on EurekAlert, a news release platform under the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The study, which collected specimens from more than 2,000 patients, also found that patients with Omicron were less likely to require hospitalization than patients with Delta.
"Omicron patients who did need hospitalization faced a risk of severe disease comparable to those hospitalized with Delta," said Heba Mostafa, lead author of the study and assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"For many people, it is not a mild infection at all," she added. ■