Several people infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus have one symptom in common — a scratchy throat.
Per The Hill, several reports from the U.K. suggest that people infected with omicron said they had scratchy throats.
- This is different from people infected with the previous variants, who said they had a sore throat.
But the ZOE COVID Study, which has analyzed thousands of COVID-19 cases and reported on COVID-19 symptoms, found that a sore throat is one of the top symptoms for those who were infected with COVID-19 around the time that the omicron variant started to circulate.
New research suggests that the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus causes less severe COVID-19 symptoms for those who are infected, especially compared to early variants of the virus, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- Reports from South Africa — where the omicron variant was first discovered — found that omicron variant symptoms have been milder among fully vaccinated people, even though the variant has been shown to evade vaccines.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chairwoman of the South African Medical Association, told the “BBC Sunday” show after discovery of the omicron variant that patients had “unusual symptoms.”
- “It actually started with a male patient who’s around the age of 33 … and he said to me that he’s just (been‚ extremely tired for the past few days and he’s got these body aches and pains with a bit of a headache,” she told BBC.
- The patient, she said, had a “scratchy throat.”