A man who died this week with COVID-19 had the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, not Omicron as previously claimed, an Israeli hospital clarified on Wednesday (Dec. 22).
The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba said Wednesday that after final laboratory results came in, a man who died Monday (Dec. 20) at the hospital was discovered to have the Delta variant. This comes after the hospital said Tuesday (Dec. 21) that he had been infected with Omicron, and his death was widely reported around the world as Israel’s first Omicron fatality.
The hospital said the man, in his 60s, suffered “many severe” preexisting medical conditions and died after he was hospitalized two weeks ago for his other conditions, and then tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.