(Reuters) – Data from South Africa suggests the Omicron coronavirus variant is 70% to 80% less severe than the Delta one, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC) said on Thursday, but that should not be extrapolated to all countries.
“We should interpret the data from South Africa with a lot of caution,” John Nkengasong told an online media briefing. “This is early days and public health practice is local.”
He added that factors such as the young median age of the South African population could be playing a part in what was being observed in the country.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon and James Macharia Chege; Editing by Alison Williams)
