If Omicron is less severe, why are Covid deaths rising?

Omicron more transmissible than Delta As we’ve seen throughout the two years of the pandemic, deaths lag behind rises in case numbers, so we’re likely to see increasing death numbers as Omicron cases continue to climb in some countries, including Russia and Brazil.

Omicron has been found to spread much more quickly than the previously dominant Delta variant – with studies suggesting it’s four times more transmissible.

Most of those who are dying from Omicron in the US are unvaccinated, showing that vaccines do make a difference in reducing hospitalization and deaths. "More infectious variants tend to run through a population very rapidly," Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University in New York City, told Reuters. "Even if such new variants cause less severe disease (particularly among those vaccinated and boosted), we will likely still see an increase in hospitalizations and deaths due to the vulnerability of the unvaccinated and unboosted. “It will be a while until we see a decrease in deaths as very sick people with COVID remain hospitalized for a long time," she said. Omicron is less severe but ‘not mild’ “We have increasing information that Omicron is less severe than Delta, but it is still a dangerous virus," says the World Health Organization’s Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, in a recent video explaining the impact of the variant. “We are learning that people with underlying conditions, people with advanced age, people who are unvaccinated can have a severe form of COVID-19 following infection from Omicron. “We know that people are still being hospitalized [with Omicron] as well as dying, so it’s important we have information out there that is accurate, that does suggest it is