Most omicron cases are reinfections, research in England suggests

Most omicron circumstances in England are amongst those that have beforehand been contaminated with the coronavirus, analysis suggests.

Imperial School London’s React continuous examine all through the pandemic discovered 64.6 % of circumstances from Jan. 5 to Jan. 20 have been amongst those that stated they beforehand had COVID-19.

The researchers warning it’s unclear which circumstances are reinfections and which circumstances are simply latest infections that the PCR COVID-19 take a look at picked up once more regardless of the affected person having already recovered from it.

The examine stated the people self-reported if that they had a earlier COVID-19 an infection.

Analyzing the genetic historical past of among the circumstances, the group discovered 99 % of the circumstances in that time-frame have been from the omicron variant and only one % have been made up of the delta variant.

“We noticed unprecedented ranges of an infection with SARS-CoV-2 in England in January 2022 and virtually full substitute of Delta by Omicron,” the researchers wrote. 

React has been analyzing COVID-19 numbers month-to-month since Might 2020 and located 4.41 % of the 100,500 swab coronavirus assessments have been optimistic in January.

It’s the highest recorded positivity because the examine started and thrice increased than in December.

The excessive variety of circumstances comes as omicron is thought to be extra infectious than earlier variants, however causes much less extreme sickness than the delta variant.