Indications that the Omicron variant of the COVID virus is relatively mild sent oil and Bitcoin up on Tuesday after trending downward during the weekend.
WTI crude was up almost 3% Tuesday morning and Bitcoin was up 6.5% as investors who had been fleeing risk after WHO organization warnings of the potential danger of Omicron returned to business as usual.
The Omicron variant was announced in South Africa the 24th of November.
This Tuesday the South African Medical Research Council released a report Tshwane District Omicron Variant Profile seeming to indicate that the Omicron variant may be milder than the previous variants of COVID.
“A significant early finding in this analysis is the much shorter average length of stay of 2.8 days for SARS-CoV-2 positive patients admitted to the COVID wards over the last two weeks compared to an average length of stay of 8.5 days for the past 18 months,” state the report’s authors.
According to the authors of the report there have also been less hospitalizations due to COVID-19 pneumonia in general than during previous waves.
“Clearly, in South Africa, omicron has a transmission advantage,” White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Sunday. “Although it’s too early to make any definitive statements about it, thus far it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it.”
