The symptoms connected to the novel omicron variant have been described by the South African doctor who first raised the alarm about the new strain as "extremely mild"
Dr. Angelique Coetzee spoke to the BBC on Sunday and explained that the patients seen so far have had “extremely mild symptoms.”
Dr. Angelique Coetzee said "It all started with a 33-year-old male patient who complained of weakness, body aches, and a slight headache.
She added the patient didn't had a sore throat, but rather a "scratchy throat" with no cough or loss of taste or smell, similar to prior strains.
Coetzee said She met other patients that day who had the same symptoms but were different from the delta variant. Due to that she prompted an alert with South Africa’s vaccine advisory committee
Coetzee's early findings are based on a tiny number of instances, and specialists are concerned about the enormous number of mutations in omicron. - W.H.O
Early evidence suggests that the variant is spreading faster in South Africa than earlier variants, and that the variant, formally designated as B.1.1.529, may be triggering a new wave of infections.
The “alpha” and “delta” variants, first found in the U.K. and India. They had different symptoms, for example, with the latter causing more headaches, sore throat, runny nose and fever.