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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified the potential for a rapid increase in infections of the new Omicron variant, in the United States.
The new variant of SARS-CoV-2 likely will spread more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and how easily Omicron spreads compared to Delta remains unknown. CDC expects that anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms.
Since the first Omicron variant was identified in South Africa in November 2021, the cases have been exponentially increasing in multiple countries. Scientists believe that rapid growth rate in Omicron infections is due to a combination of increased transmissibility and the ability to evade immunity conferred by past infection or vaccination.
CDC recommends that vaccines remain the best public health measure to protect people from Covid-19, slow transmission, and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging. It has been proved that Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalisations, and death.
Everyone 5 years and older protect themselves from Covid-19 by getting fully vaccinated and people having 18 years and older should get a booster shot, said CDC.
Symptoms of Omicron
People are worried about distinguishing the symptoms of Omicron from those of previous coronavirus variants.
Most PCR and rapid antigen tests can detect infection with Omicron variant, which has a large number of mutations. WHO and the CDC have classified Omicron as a Variant of Concern (VOC).
Studies done in South Africa, where Omicron was initially found, show that Omicron patients often develop a scratchy or sore throat along with nasal congestion, a dry cough and muscle pain, especially low back pain. It’s likely that the symptoms of Omicron will resemble delta’s more than they differ from them.
“There’s probably a huge amount of overlap between Omicron and the prior variants, because they are essentially doing the same thing,” Dr. Otto O. Yang, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine told The New York Times. “If there are differences, they’re probably fairly subtle.”
One significant differece difference between Omicron and other variants is that Omicron seems to have a shorter incubation time. After a person is exposed, it takes as few as three days for them to develop symptoms, become contagious and test positive, compared with four to six days with delta and the original coronavirus, Dr. Waleed Javaid, director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City told the New York Times.
Vaccinated patients have reported fever with bad cold, lethargy, headaches and lot of body pains. Unvaccinated people, too, tend to have the same shortness of breath, cough and flulike symptoms like in Delta variant.
According to the CDS, the most commonly reported symptoms were cough, fatigue, and a blocked or runny nose. However, in the case of Omicron there is less likelihod of loss of taste and smell compared to earlier variants.
Although children tend to have mild symptoms they are far more likely to get hospitalised.
The new variant of SARS-CoV-2 likely will spread more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and how easily Omicron spreads compared to Delta remains unknown. CDC expects that anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms.
Since the first Omicron variant was identified in South Africa in November 2021, the cases have been exponentially increasing in multiple countries. Scientists believe that rapid growth rate in Omicron infections is due to a combination of increased transmissibility and the ability to evade immunity conferred by past infection or vaccination.
CDC recommends that vaccines remain the best public health measure to protect people from Covid-19, slow transmission, and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging. It has been proved that Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalisations, and death.
Everyone 5 years and older protect themselves from Covid-19 by getting fully vaccinated and people having 18 years and older should get a booster shot, said CDC.
Symptoms of Omicron
People are worried about distinguishing the symptoms of Omicron from those of previous coronavirus variants.
Most PCR and rapid antigen tests can detect infection with Omicron variant, which has a large number of mutations. WHO and the CDC have classified Omicron as a Variant of Concern (VOC).
Studies done in South Africa, where Omicron was initially found, show that Omicron patients often develop a scratchy or sore throat along with nasal congestion, a dry cough and muscle pain, especially low back pain. It’s likely that the symptoms of Omicron will resemble delta’s more than they differ from them.
“There’s probably a huge amount of overlap between Omicron and the prior variants, because they are essentially doing the same thing,” Dr. Otto O. Yang, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine told The New York Times. “If there are differences, they’re probably fairly subtle.”
One significant differece difference between Omicron and other variants is that Omicron seems to have a shorter incubation time. After a person is exposed, it takes as few as three days for them to develop symptoms, become contagious and test positive, compared with four to six days with delta and the original coronavirus, Dr. Waleed Javaid, director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City told the New York Times.
Vaccinated patients have reported fever with bad cold, lethargy, headaches and lot of body pains. Unvaccinated people, too, tend to have the same shortness of breath, cough and flulike symptoms like in Delta variant.
According to the CDS, the most commonly reported symptoms were cough, fatigue, and a blocked or runny nose. However, in the case of Omicron there is less likelihod of loss of taste and smell compared to earlier variants.
Although children tend to have mild symptoms they are far more likely to get hospitalised.
