Coronavirus: 'Wrong time to lift restrictions' says Greenhalgh
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According to new research, people infected by Omicron are more likely to experience a sore throat than if they were infected by the Delta Covid variant. Yet, if infected by the Omicron variant, people – according to the study – are less likely to lose their sense of smell. The results revealed that only 20 percent of Omicron cases presented with a loss of smell.
Meanwhile, up to 52.7 percent of Delta cases reported this symptom.
Moreover, the current dominant strain (Omicron) is markedly less threatening, as the virus is linked to less hospitalisations overall.
The research also pointed out that the symptoms of Omicron are shorter compared to Delta by nearly two days.
An honorary professor at King’s College London, Ana Valdes, commented on the results.
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“Although there is still a wide range of duration and severity of symptoms with Omicron, for vaccinated individuals we find, on average, a shorter duration of symptoms,” she said.
“This suggests that the incubation time and period of infectiousness for Omicron may also be shorter.”
These finding support previous studies that suggest Omicron is infectious for less time than the Delta variant.
Doctor Cristina Menni from King’s College London added: “We observe a different clinical presentation of symptoms in those infected with Omicron compared to Delta.”
While the rules for self isolation has been lifted in England if you test positive for the disease, Doctor Menni recommends otherwise.
“To protect others, it is still important to self-isolate for five days as soon as you see any symptoms,” she said.
Where the data comes from
Researchers from King’s College London and scientists from the ZOE Covid Symptom Study collaborated to present these findings.
Together, the teams analysed the signs of infection from 62,002 vaccinated UK participants.
Such data was obtain from the self-reported ZOE Covid Symptom Study app between June 1 to November 27, 2021.
This is when the Delta strain was most dominant strain in the UK at that time.
Such results were then compared to the data obtained from December 22, 2021 to January 17, 2022.
The later dates coincided with the dominance of the Omicron variant.
The study will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) this month in Lisbon.
The latest on Covid
According to the government’s latest statistics, the number of people admitted to hospital due to Covid is increasing.
As from April 3, there have been 438 people who have been admitted to hospital.
In addition to a rise in hospitalisations, the number of people now dying from Covid is also on the rise compared to March.
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