The Omicron virus variant may lead to less severe cases of COVID-19 than earlier strains, according to data from South Africa, where the variant was first identified last month. Most of the hospitalized patients admitted with COVID-19 did not need oxygen, a contrast to earlier in the pandemic, the South African Medical Research Council said in a new report. Of 42 patients at a COVID-19 ward inside one of the hospitals in Gauteng Province, the epicenter of the latest wave, on Dec. 2, 70 percent did not need oxygen and had no respiratory symptoms, researchers said. They described the patients as “incidental COVID admissions” because the patients were admitted to the hospital for a medical or surgical reason, not COVID-19. Out of the 13 patients that required supplemental oxygen, nine had a diagnosis of COVID-19. “This is a picture that has not been seen in previous waves. In the beginning of …