Omicron variant: cough, sweating, muscle pain… What are the symptoms to be aware of?


As the Omicron variant of Covid-19 spreads at high speed across the territory, scientists are gradually drawing up a list of symptoms to watch out for

In France, the Omicron variant continues its cavalcade: 180,000 positive cases detected on Tuesday, December 28, an absolute record. Extremely contagious, it could cause more than 250,000 daily contaminations as of January, according to the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

Dangerousness, recontamination capacity, resistance to tests and vaccines… The variant from South Africa is constantly studied by scientists. With a few weeks of hindsight, the precise symptoms are listed.

A lesser evil?

Several peculiarities stand out compared to other strains of the virus and to the list of official symptoms drawn up by the government. As reported by “Ouest-France”, people infected with Omicron would be less prone to ageusia and anosmia than with the Delta variant, ie loss of taste and smell.

Patients would also develop less cough and high fevers. In short, the symptoms would be milder with Omicron. The World Health Organization has nevertheless specified that “the infections initially reported concerned young individuals who tend to present a mild form of the disease”.

On the same subject

Omicron: milder symptoms?

On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) qualified the variant Omicron, newly appeared in South Africa, as “worrying” on the basis of its speed of spread. Many cases have since started to emerge across the world, including a few in France (9 cases at the time of writing this article, note).

Night sweats and characteristic pains

The Omicron variant would, however, cause characteristic symptoms, similar to those of the flu. It would cause “cold sweats”, “chills”. These “repeated episodes of extreme sweating”, as “The New Republic” evoked, would occur during the night.

In addition, there are other elements specific to respiratory infections, such as severe episodes of fatigue and muscle pain. Dr Angelique Coetzee, president of the South African Medical Association, who was one of the first to be confronted with Omicron, spoke of the first patients “extremely tired”, complaining of “aches”.

What are other countries saying?

On the other side of the Channel, the British who have been dealing with the Omicron variant for several days have also listed the symptoms of the new mutation. As the “Guardian” explains, they are said to be similar to those of a “common cold”: sore throat, runny nose and headache. Elements also mentioned at the beginning of December in a report from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A proximity to the common cold which could be explained by the mutation itself, which would infect the bronchi more and less the lungs than the previous variants, according to a Hong Kong study. Other symptoms have also been reported, but with a rarer frequency: fever, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath and diarrhea.

Rashes in children

Dr David Lloyd, a British doctor and surgeon, has discovered a final symptom specific to the Omicron variant: rashes in children. On December 7, he estimated that “15% of children” positive for this strain were concerned.



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