Early hospital data from South Africa shows less than a third of patients admitted for Covid-19 during the latest wave linked to the Omicron variant are suffering severe illness, compared with two thirds in the early stages of the last two waves.

Data released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) for Tshwane, the metropolitan area which includes Pretoria where the first suspected outbreak of the Omicron occurred, showed 1,633 admissions in public and private hospitals for Covid-19 between Nov 14 and Dec 8.

Of those, 31 per cent were severe cases — defined as patients needing oxygen or mechanical ventilation — compared with 66pc early in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and 67pc in the early weeks of the first.