With cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 rising fast, South African expert revealed the symptoms that have been observed in patients with COVID-19 disease caused by the latest variant of concern.
Talking to news agency AFP, Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, said that the new variant was causing “unfamiliar symptoms in patients”. She is doctor who raised the alarm against Omicron, has said that the COVID-19
As per Dr Coetzee, the symptoms included extreme tiredness, mild muscle aches, a scratchy throat and dry cough, while only a few of the cases showing slightly high fever. Nevertheless, she observed that the symptoms displayed by patients infected with the Omicron variant were “mild”. Furthermore, she revealed that the patients were able to completely recover without the need to be hospitalised. She has treated more than 30 COVID-19 patients with “unfamiliar symptoms” in the last 10 days.
The unfamiliar symptoms led her to raise the alarm that the patients were not showing an illness likely caused by the Delta variant, which has till now been the dominated COVID-19 strain in the country. She was quoted as saying, “We are not saying that there will not be severe disease coming forward. But for now, even the patients that we have seen who are not vaccinated have mild symptoms. I'm quite sure... a lot of people in Europe already have this virus.”
Most of the SAMA chief’s patients were mail and less than the age of 40 years. Less than half the patients have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Dr Coetzee further said that the “unfamiliar symptoms” may have been missed by countries in Europe. She said told South African TV news channel Newzroom Afrika, “My suspicion is that because our scientists are very alert and doing a lot of sequencing in the background, maybe those European countries missed it because of the symptoms.”
Meanwhile, the fear of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and taken over the world with cases having already been detected in several European countries after first being reported from South African and Botswana. The Indian government has revised travel guidelines for international arrivals in the wake of the new variant of concern. The centre has also asked states and UTs to perform intensive containment, active surveillance, enhanced testing, monitoring of hotspots, increased coverage of vaccination and augmentation of health infrastructure.
