The differences between 'old Covid' and Omicron symptoms
29.01.2022 - 18:19
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The dominant strain of Covid-19 in the UK is now Omicron - but there is still a sizeable presence of the Delta form of the virus, too.
The two variants also do present different symptoms, a new report from the UK Health Security Agency says.
Analysis from the UKHSA looked at the symptoms reported to NHS Track and Trace by those who tested positive for Covid in December, Wales Online reports.
Confirmed cases were asked if they displayed any of the following symptoms: fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, altered consciousness, muscle or joint pain, headache, loss of smell or taste, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, rash, red or irritated eye, loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhoea.
The average number of reported symptoms was the same for both variants at four.
A sore throat was more likely to be reported by cases with Omicron (53 percent of Omicron cases, 34 percent of Delta cases).
On the other hand, loss of smell and taste was found to be less common among Omicron compared to Delta cases (13 percent of Omicron cases, 34 percent of Delta cases).
Analysis was based on 182,133 Omicron and 87,920 Delta cases reporting symptoms with onset between December 1 and December 28, who completed contract tracing and reported symptoms, and had provided data on their age, sex and region.
As the graph below shows, when adjusted for these and other factors, people with Omicron are much more likely to report a sore throat than those with Delta, and much less likely to report a loss of taste and smell.
The adjusted odds ratio analysis compared the odds of a specific symptom being reported by an Omicron or a Delta case whilst adjusting for age group, sex, ethnicity, self reported vaccination status (two or more doses,