White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that preliminary data on the severity of the COVID Omicron variant is "a bit encouraging," suggesting that the highly mutated variant may not be as dangerous as initially feared.

"Although it's too early to make any definitive statements about [Omicron], thus far it does not look like there's a great degree of severity to it," Fauci told CNN. The nation's top infectious disease expert added that "we've really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe, or really doesn't cause any severe illness comparable to Delta, but thus far the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the severity."

Fauci was referencing a new report from the South African Medical Research Council published Saturday that focused on preliminary data from several hospitals in Gauteng Province--where the Omicron variant was first discovered by scientists--over the last two weeks.. The report suggests that the new COVID strain could cause a milder infection, since most hospitalized who tested positive for the strain did not need supplemental oxygen; few patients developed COVID-induced pneumonia, few required high-level care, and fewer still needed intensive care, according to the report.

Experts caution that it is too early to tell whether or not the new variant poses a greater risk of death compared to previous strains, given the relatively small amount of data the report is based on and how recently the variant was discovered. The World Health Organization recognized the Omicron strain as a Variant of Concern on Nov. 26 after the mutation was first identified in South Africa on Nov. 24.

However, emerging evidence for the South African report suggests that the Omicron variant may be affecting younger patients more than previous strains, with the report's authors noting that "what is clear though is that the age profile is different from previous waves."

The report, analyzing 166 patients admitted to hospitals in Gauteng Province between Nov. 14 and 29, found that far more young adults and children were being admitted to the hospital due to complications with their COVID infection.

"In the last two weeks, no fewer than 805 of admissions were below the age of 50 years. This is in keeping with the age profile of admissions in all public and private hospitals in Tshwane and throughout the Gauteng Province in the last two weeks...19% were children aged 0-9 years and the highest number of admissions was in the age group 30-39 years, making up 28% of the total," report's authors wrote.

The authors noted that the increase in younger hospital admissions could be due to lower vaccination rates in South Africa among young people, stating that "57% of people over the age of 50 have been vaccinated in the provenance compared to 34% in the 18-to-49 years group."