Doctors in South Africa said Friday there had been a spike in hospitalisations among young children after Omicron swept through the country but stressed it was early to know if they were particularly susceptible.
In the week since South Africa alerted the world of the new Covid variant, infections have spread faster than in the country's three previous waves.
The first cluster of cases centred around university students, and then spread quickly among young people who seem to have spread it to older people
But scientists and health officials said they had seen increasing hospital admissions in children under five, along with higher positivity rates among children aged 10-14.
Wassila Jassat, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said: "We've seen quite a sharp increase across all age groups, particularly in the under fives," referring to hospitalisations
South African scientists on Thursday reported that the reinfections were three times as likely with Omicron, compared to the Delta or Beta strains.
Although generally patients are showing milder symptoms, Groome cautioned that the onset of serious illness would only be expected over the coming two weeks.
the new coronavirus variant Omicron, the Union Health Ministry asked people not to panic but follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated without delay. It also said the scientific reasoning for booster vaccine doses is under examination and that priority is to complete the task of receiving both jabs of COVID vaccine.
Omicron so new, companies are struggling to understand how the variant might affect their operations and profits. Most have taken a wait-and-see stance as they weigh how fast the variant may spread and its potential harmfulness, although Alphabet Inc's Google was indefinitely delaying its return-to-office plan around the world
The health ministry on Friday said the severity of Omicron cases could be low because of the fast-paced vaccination in India and the population's high exposure to the Delta variant
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