The head of the study at the Steve Biko/Tshwane District Hospital Complex in South Africa said it's too early to be too hopeful about the Omicron variant.
The report looked at 42 patients in the hospital. The doctors involved in the report said they don't know if the patients had the Omicron variant, but that it's likely because of the spread of the variant in South Africa.
The head of the report told The New York Times that the findings are preliminary and only sample a small group of patients.
70% of the patients did not need supplemental oxygen. Four of the 13 patients who were using supplemental oxygen were in need of it.
It was uncommon to have a high percentage of people not in need of oxygen in previous waves.
Most of the patients on the COVID ward were on some form of oxygen, and the ward was recognizable by the loud sound of high flow oxygen machines, or the sound of a ventilator alarm.
The report said that most of the people were admitted to the hospital for other reasons and were only discovered to have the coronaviruses through routine testing.
The average length of stay for 166 COVID-19 patients that were admitted to the Biko/Tshwane hospital between November 14 and November 29 was less than three days, according to the Times.
Only 7% of patients in the hospital died, compared to 17% who died throughout the rest of the Pandemic, according to the Times.
In the past 28 days, South Africa has had over 100,000 COVID-19 cases and over 800 deaths. More than 3 million South Africans have been affected by the swine flue, and close to 9000 have died.
