Among the most frequent symptoms of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 are fatigue and a runny nose, but it must be said that the data are still preliminary and quantitatively few.

A first list is provided by the British research conducted by King's College London in collaboration with the Zoe company and which was published in the British Medical Journal according to which there are five main symptoms: runny nose, headache, feeling of fatigue, sneezing and sore throat. The same authors of the article note that these are only initial and very partial indications, based on the positive cases observed in London, where the Omicron variant is much more widespread than in the rest of Great Britain.

The UK government has also added fever, cough, and loss of smell and taste to the list, although these symptoms are more associated with the Alpha variant. While cough, tiredness and runny nose are, in that order, the symptoms indicated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC), according to which the loss of taste and smell are less common.

"It is premature to talk about symptoms because there are still no reliable data published," says virologist Francesco Broccolo, of the University of Milan Bicocca. On the other hand, what the data from Scotland and Northern Europe indicate, the virologist emphasizes, is that "the cases caused by the Omicron variant are associated with a decidedly lower hospitalization, estimated two thirds less, but it is not clear whether this is due to vaccination coverage or a lower real virulence of Omicron ", he specified referring to characteristics of the virus such as greater transmissibility, escape from neutralizing antibodies generated by the vaccine and greater ability to replicate.

(Unioneonline / ss)