Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says preliminary evidence indicates that the Omicron variant does not make people sicker than the Delta and other strains.
Dr Fong says they are aware of misinformation being peddled widely on social media and it needs to be reiterated that the evidence on Omicron variant’s impact on the transmissibility of the virus, severity of disease, and effect of prior immunity (from vaccination or infection) is still in the very early stages so conclusions cannot be made yet.
He further says if anything, the direction is towards less severity adding they again emphasize that this data is very early and more will be known once more people, including the most vulnerable, get infected.
Dr Fong adds furthermore, this variant may be more transmissible than the Delta variant; it may cause reinfection in people who have been previously infected with another variant; and it has been seen to infect people who are fully vaccinated – although, so far, the fully vaccinated cases have been generally mild or with no symptoms.
