Producer | Sohu Health
Author | Zhou Yichuan
Editor | Yuan Yue
< p data-track="4">Recently, the Lancet magazine published a study saying that the symptoms of the new coronavirus variant Omicron infection are milder and the duration is shorter than that of the Delta infection. They were less likely to have anosmia, a fever, and a more common sore throat.
Since its discovery, Omicron has been reported to have relatively mild infections, and studies from South Korea, South Africa, and France have shown significant reductions in hospitalizations, ICU needs, and mortality. In this study, researchers from King’s College London tracked 63,000 patients’ self-recorded symptoms through a mobile phone program and matched them into 5,000 pairs according to age, gender, underlying status, etc., and compared the symptoms and duration of Omicron infection with Delta infection for direct comparison.
It was found that the most common symptoms in Delta infected people were runny nose, headache, sneezing, sore throat and loss of smell, while Omicron infection was most common with runny nose, headache, sore throat , sneezing, persistent cough and hoarseness. Among the 32 symptoms, the incidence of 12 of Omicron’s infection symptoms was significantly lower than that of Delta infected patients. The biggest difference was loss of smell and change of smell, which were less than 20% and 52.7%, respectively, brain fog, burning eyes, dizziness, Debilitating symptoms such as fever are less common.
However, people with Omicron are at higher risk for a sore throat and hoarse voice. These symptoms can occur with or without the vaccine.
The duration of symptoms was 6.9 days in Omicron-infected patients, compared with 8.9 days in Delta, and was shorter in third-dose vaccine recipients. It can be seen that Omicron has generally fewer symptoms, less lower respiratory tract involvement, and a 25% lower hospitalization rate than Delta. People infected with Omicron are twice as likely to recover within a week than those infected in Delta.
It can be seen that the symptoms of vaccine recipients have changed after Omicron infection, which is different from the clinical manifestations of previous waves of epidemics, and the infectious period may be shorter. This will have implications for health policy and public health guidance affecting the workplace. If you have symptoms of a sore throat, even if you don’t have a fever or loss of smell, get tested for the virus and self-isolate to avoid spreading it to others.
References:
1. thelancet
Symptom prevalence , duration, and risk of hospital admission in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 during periods of omicron and delta variant dominance: a prospective observational study from the ZOE COVID Study
https ://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00327-0/fulltext#