Reduced risk of hospitalisation among reported COVID-19 cases infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 variant compared with the Delta variant, Norway, December 2021 to January 2022

We included 39,524 COVID-19 Omicron and 51,481 Delta cases reported in Norway from December 2021 to January 2022. We estimated a 73% reduced risk of hospitalisation (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.27; 95% confi-dence interval: 0.20-0.36) for Omicron compared with Delta. Compared with unvaccinated groups, Omicron cases who had completed primary two-dose vaccina-tion 7-179 days before diagnosis had a lower reduced risk than Delta (66% vs 93%). People vaccinated with three doses had a similar risk reduction (86% vs 88%).

Automated summary

A study found that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has a 73% reduced risk of hospitalization compared to the Delta variant. Omicron cases who had received two doses of the vaccine 7-179 days before diagnosis had a lower risk compared to Delta (66% vs 93%), while those who received three doses had a similar risk reduction (86% vs 88%).