A major analysis has found people who catch Omicron Covid are just one-third as likely to enter hospital as those who get the Delta variant.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has unveiled an 'encouraging' assessment of the variant which now accounts for most cases in Britain, reports the Mirror.
Last week the UKHSA estimated Omicron sufferers were 31% to 45% less likely to attend A&E than Delta, and 50 to 70% less likely to be admitted to hospital.
Today the UKHSA's fresh analysis was more optimistic - finding the risk of attending A&E or being admitted was 43-50% lower, and the risk of full hospital admission was between 63% and 70% lower.
At the same time, the proportion of Covid patients being treated primarily for the virus in England’s hospitals has dropped slightly
Data from NHS England shows that, of the 8,321 patients with coronavirus in NHS acute hospital trusts in England on December 28, 5,578 (67%) were being treated primarily for Covid.
This is down from 71% a week earlier and 74% at the start of December.
But the number being treated primarily for coronavirus is still rising – up 26% from 4,432 on December 21 to 5,578 on December 28.
The statistics also show that the number of patients with Covid-19 but primarily being treated for something else also rose from 1,813 to 2,743, a jump of 51%.
Around one in 25 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to December 23, according to new estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is up from one in 45 in the week to December 16.
One in 25 is the equivalent of about 2.0 million people and is the highest number since the ONS began estimating infection levels for England in May 2020.
In London, around one in 15 people was likely to test positive for Covid-19 in the week to December 23, the highest proportion for any region in England.
North-east England had the lowest proportion, at around one in 45.
