The list of symptoms associated with COVID-19 is long, spanning everything from lost taste and smell to skin conditions. But since the pandemic began, health authorities have emphasized a few hallmark signs, namely coughing and fever.
As people the world over are finding, though, cases related to the Omicron variant don’t always produce those symptoms. During the Omicron wave, many people are reporting symptoms more in line with a common cold, with some puzzling additions—like lower back pain.
There’s still a lot to be learned, but here’s what we know so far about the symptoms of Omicron.
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What are the most common Omicron symptoms?
Reports have varied. But overall, “this Omicron variant is acting more like a normal coronavirus,” such as those that cause the common cold, says Dr. Stephanie Sterling, an infectious diseases physician at NYU Langone Health.
That shift began with the Delta variant and has remained true of Omicron, says Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist who founded the consumer health company ZOE, which runs a COVID-19 symptom tracking app to which more than 4.7 million people have contributed data. ZOE’s data suggest that the five most common symptoms associated with Omicron are runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and sore throat.
“The classic symptoms of fever, cough and loss of smell were slightly less frequent with Delta than with Alpha, and the cold-like symptoms…became more common,” Spector says. “Omicron has really just increased that rather subtle change.”
Other research has come to slightly different conclusions. South Africa’s largest health insurer listed nasal congestion, sore or scratchy throat, dry cough and lower back pain as common Omicron symptoms. And a small study from Norway found that, among people in one case cluster, a cough was the most common symptom associated with the variant, followed by runny nose and fatigue. Like ZOE, the Norwegian researchers also observed a significant decrease…
Source : time
