Two new symptoms in people infected with the Omicron variant

Omicron is now sweeping the UK, with cases reaching more than 100,000. While the new variant is considered mild, there are some new symptoms to look out for.

According to the UK National Health Service, previous symptoms of Covid-19 often include fever, persistent cough, loss or change in sense of smell/taste. However, people infected withOmicronThere are several distinct symptoms. Recently, doctors have noted two symptoms: nausea and loss of appetite.

These are symptoms that tend to be more common in people who have had two to three doses of the vaccine, explains Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London.

Illustration photo: Reuters

“Quite a few of them had nausea, mild fever, sore throat and headache,” said Professor Spector. Some had vomiting.

The five common symptoms in patients infected with Delta and Omicron today are runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing, and sore throat.

The only way to know for sure if you have the Omicron variant is to do a PCR test. Most PCR tests target certain parts of the virus genome, including the S gene. Omicron has a mutation here that the PCR will not pick up. So if you test positive but the S gene is missing, you have Omicron.

Omicron appears to be milder than Delta, with people infected with the new variant having a 40 to 70 percent lower risk of hospitalization, according to two preliminary studies published last week. Symptoms tend to be more like a cold.

However, because Omicron tends to spread very quickly, the number of cases is increasing rapidly. Therefore, scientists fear that even though the hospitalization rate is low, the total number of severe cases will still be very high, putting pressure on the health systems of countries.