Omicron’s ability to evade vaccine and infection-induced immunity is “robust but not complete”, researchers in South Africa said. The data comes from the first reported experiments gauging the effectiveness of Covid-19 inoculations against the strain.

This is a key finding of the Africa Health Research Institute. In the first reported experiments gauging the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines against the worrisome new strain, researchers at the institute found that the variant could partially evade the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. Still, its evasion wasn’t complete and a booster shot could provide additional protection, Alex Sigal said in an online presentation on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mediclinic International, one of South Africa’s three biggest hospital groups, said it is seeing an increased influx of Covid-19 patients, but only a few require admission for further care.

The variant “appears to be highly transmissible”, Mediclinic said in a statement on Tuesday. Still, “so far, a lower percentage of admitted Covid-19 patients require intensive care and ventilation”. — (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP