Does delta cause more severe COVID-19? Here’s what we know — and don’t – CBC
3 studies suggest variant raises risk of serious illness, including new research from Singapore
Aug 27, 2021
A small-but-growing body of research suggests the highly contagious delta variant raises your risk of serious illness, but it’s tough to know for sure if it’s the root cause of more severe COVID-19, both researchers and outside experts say.
The latest findings out of Singapore, published this week in the peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, involve a comparison between 829 hospitalized patients infected with one of three variants of concern — including delta — and 846 patients admitted to hospitals with the original coronavirus strain in early 2020.
“After adjusting for age and sex, [delta] was associated with higher odds of oxygen requirement, ICU admission, or death,” the research team wrote.
The findings of the study are similar to what was seen in both a broad analysis of Singapore’s national-level data and a detailed study of patients with severe outcomes, the paper continued.
The conclusions also echo other international studies, including one out of Scotland and another from a team in Ontario, which both found a heightened risk of severe outcomes following infection with the delta variant.
