Comparing Prospective Incident Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Rates During Successive Waves of Delta and Omicron in Johannesburg, South Africa

Simiso Sokhela; Bronwyn Bosch; Andrew Hill; Bryony Simmons; Joana Woods; Hilary Johnstone; Shabir Madhi; Ambar Qavi; Leah Ellis; Godspower Akpomiemie; Esther Bhaskar; Jacob Levi; Jonathan Falconer; Manya Mirchandani; Carmen Perez Casas; Karlien Moller; Victoria Pilkington; Toby Pepperrell; Willem Daniel Francois Venter

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac587

Comparing Prospective Incident Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Rates During Successive Waves of Delta and Omicron in Johannesburg, South Africa

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Dec 16;9(12):ofac587. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac587. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

Simiso Sokhela¹, Bronwyn Bosch¹, Andrew Hill², Bryony Simmons³, Joana Woods¹, Hilary Johnstone⁴, Shabir Madhi^{5

6}, Ambar Qavi⁷, Leah Ellis⁷, Godspower Akpomiemie¹, Esther Bhaskar¹, Jacob Levi⁸, Jonathan Falconer⁹, Manya Mirchandani⁷, Carmen Perez Casas¹⁰, Karlien Moller¹, Victoria Pilkington¹¹, Toby Pepperrell¹², Willem Daniel Francois Venter¹

Affiliations

¹ Ezintsha, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
² Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Liverpool University, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
³ LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
⁴ HJ-Clinical Trial Consultancy, George, South Africa.
⁵ South African Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁶ South Africa and African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁷ School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁸ Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom.
⁹ Respiratory Department, Royal Brompton Hospital NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ Unitaid, Global Health Campus, Le Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland.
¹¹ Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School, Oxford, United Kingdom.
¹² College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

Abstract

In high-risk individuals in Johannesburg, during the Delta coronavirus disease 2019 wave, 22% (125/561) were positive, with 33% symptomatic (2 hospitalizations; 1 death). During Omicron, 56% (232/411) were infected, with 24% symptomatic (no hospitalizations or deaths). The remarkable speed of infection of Omicron over Delta poses challenges to conventional severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 control measures.

Keywords: COVID-19; Delta; Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; South Africa.