The Omicron variant is 4 times more transmissible than Delta: Study

Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani joins the Live show hosts to report on a new study indicating that the Omicron coronavirus variant is four times more transmissible than the Delta variant.

Video transcript

- But let's first start with the latest on Omicron. As markets continue to take their cue from developments on the new variant, Yahoo Finance senior health care reporter Anjalee Khemlani joins us with the latest. Anjalee.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Brian. Yeah, so the latest we got is a new yet another study-- also, preliminary, I have to put that disclaimer-- from Japan this time, showing that Omicron it could be up to 4.2 times faster in terms of its transmissibility compared to Delta. And that's really quite a jump. We know that already we've seen that increase that spike in cases in South Africa, where we're monitoring what's happening on the ground there. The hospitals filling up and cases continuing to increase. So already, we know that there's some level of increased transmissibility.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting on more definitive conclusions from other studies and for peer reviews to happen. We also know, of course, just to recap from yesterday, the Pfizer news that the three doses, including that booster, do hold up against the variant. And that right now is what we're keeping our eye on when it comes to what are the actual conclusive results. All of this information that we have so far is preliminary. And that is something the World Health Organization has repeatedly advised and warned against taking any of this just as conclusive data.

So as it stands right now, still preliminary data all showing kind of the same pattern. One is that it is increasingly transmissible, and that's the worrisome part. Whether or not all vaccines will hold up against it still remains to be seen. But we also do know that the data points to milder or more moderate disease rather than severe. So waiting for all of this to pan out still.

But right now, increasingly prevalent in many countries, the World Health Organization said, it's in close to 60 countries now. Meanwhile, we know within the States, it continues to spread. Back to you.

- Anjalee, thanks so much.