Stay Curious. Stay Connected.
MailNewsletters♡Donate Now
Sign up
*Password must be at least 8 characters and contain one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number and one symbol.
Already have an account?
By submitting, you consent that you are at least 18 years of age and to receive information about MPR's or APMG entities' programs and offerings. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about MPR, APMG entities, and its sponsors. You may opt-out at any time clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email communication. View our Privacy Policy.
Sign in to your profile
Forgot Password?
New to MPR News?
Welcome back
to news
for you
Reset Password

Enter the username on file and we'll send you a code to reset your password.

Still require assistance or not sure what your User Name is?
Welcome back
to news
for you
Email Verification

A verification code has been emailed to

Still awaiting the code?
COVID-19
Scott Neuman, NPR

Omicron is spreading quickly, but fewer of the infected are ending up in the hospital

People walk past a sign outlining COVID-19 guidelines
People walk past a sign outlining COVID-19 guidelines in the center of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Saturday. As the omicron variant coronavirus spreads rapidly, one positive is that a smaller percentage of infected people are winding up in the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms.
Peter Dejong | AP file

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

As the omicron variant coronavirus spreads rapidly, one positive is that a smaller percentage of infected people are winding up in the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms compared to earlier strains.

Washington, D.C.; New York City; Chicago; San Francisco and Seattle are among the cities that have seen rapid and substantial increases in the numbers of infections. There are also big surges in Miami, New Orleans and Houston.

But Dr. Robert Wachter at the University of California, San Francisco, tells NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff that fewer hospitalizations as a percentage of those infected is likely due to two things: greater immunity among the public from vaccines and prior coronavirus infection, and that omicron might be slightly less severe than delta.

Vaccines don’t stop infections with omicron, but they do reduce the risk of hospitalization by about 70 percent — with a booster shot, that figure is even higher.

However, Wachter cautions: "If you're a person who has no immunity at all, no vaccination and no prior infection or your prior infection was a year and a half ago and it was mild, you’re not out of the woods.”

“There is a reasonable chance that you will get very sick with omicron,” he says.

Even so, the rapid spread of omicron — resulting in 10,000 cases in a single day in Chicago, for instance, and a more than five-fold increase in the last two weeks in Washington, D.C. — means a lot of infected people. Watcher estimates that in San Francisco 1 and 20 people are walking around the city with COVID and don't even realize it. They're totally asymptomatic. Watcher calls that “pretty shocking.”

“If you were in a room with about 30 or 40 [people], there's almost a near certainty, about a 90 percent chance that one of them has COVID. So that's a little scary,” he says.