Omicron appears to be milder, risk-on

The Santa Claus may be upon us after all. Markets thrive on the optimism that the wave of Omicron appears to be milder. The reports came out over a series of days and the upbeat sentiment was rehashed on Wednesday of news of preliminary studies published in the UK and South Africa.

Early evidence suggests fewer people are needing hospital treatment than with other variants - with estimates ranging from a 30% to a 70% reduction, the BBC reported. 

However, the spread of the disease could overwhelm hospitals, the article warns as it notes that more than 100,000 cases have been reported in the UK in a single day for the first time.

Also, cases of omicron are doubling about every two days. In the past week, the percentage of omicron cases in the United States rose from 13 percent to 73 percent.

"The major question for everyone right now isn't whether omicron is going to hit their area. It will," said Dr. Michael Saag, an infectious disease expert and associate dean for global health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"The question," he said, "is how much disease will it cause?"

The BBC wrote, ''a deeper understanding of the severity of Omicron will help countries decide how to respond to the virus.''

''The study in Scotland has been tracking coronavirus and the number of people ending up in hospital.

It said that if Omicron behaved the same as Delta, they would expect about 47 people to have been admitted to hospital already. At the moment there are only 15.

The researchers said they were seeing a roughly two-thirds reduction in the number needing hospital care, but there were very few cases and few at-risk elderly people in the study.''

Meanwhile, though much remains unknown about omicron, experts say the variant could lead to long Covid, even with a mild case. This means that patients with long-term symptoms can experience crushing fatigue, irregular heart rhythms and other issues months after their initial Covid infection. 

Nonetheless, experts continue to urge people to get vaccinated and get a booster shot to reduce the risk for severe illness. Markets are of the opinion that vaccinations will contain the spread and US stocks closed near session highs. 

The S&P 500 gained 1% to 4,696.56, the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.2% to 15,521.89 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7% to 35,753.89. Pfizer rose after the FDA approved the covid-19 tablet for emergency use in the US.