"Half of the Population to Be Infected with COVID-19 Within Two Months... January to Be the Peak, Experts Predict"

US Researchers: Over 90% of Omicron Infections Are Asymptomatic

Omicron variant.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] As the new variant of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), Omicron, spreads rapidly, modeling results suggest that nearly half of the world's population will be infected with COVID-19 over the next two months.

On the 22nd (local time), USA Today reported that researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington released COVID-19 modeling results incorporating additional information related to the Omicron variant.

The researchers stated, "COVID-19 infections in the United States are expected to peak at the end of January, with about 2.8 million daily infections."

If this prediction proves accurate, it means that one-third of the U.S. population (approximately 330 million) will be newly infected.

IHME Director Dr. Chris Murray explained, "There will be a massive number of infections due to the spread of Omicron," but added, "According to meta-analysis results, about 40% of patients infected with previous variants were asymptomatic, whereas over 90% of Omicron-infected individuals are expected to be asymptomatic." The researchers predicted that because of this, the total number of infected individuals will not be fully captured in statistics.

Additionally, the researchers forecast that about 3 billion new infections will occur worldwide outside the United States during the same period. This means nearly half of the approximately 7.5 billion people outside the U.S. will be infected. The peak is expected around mid-January, with at least 35 million new infections daily, according to the researchers.

Dr. Murray predicted, "While COVID-19 was previously considered to be 10 times more dangerous than the flu, its severity now appears to be about one-tenth as severe. Omicron is much more contagious than the flu but may be less severe."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.