UK health agency increasingly confident Omicron is less severe

The UK Health Security Agency on Friday said it was increasingly confident that the Omicron coronavirus variant was less severe for adults, as it published its updated briefing on the variant.

"There is now high confidence that the Omicron variant causes low severity of disease in adults," UKHSA said.

It added that there were 53 sequences of a sub-lineage of Omicron, BA.2, which does not have a specific mutation that easily distinguishes it from Delta, adding it would monitor the sub-lineage closely.