The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is much less more likely to trigger lengthy COVID than the Delta pressure, in accordance with a examine revealed in The Lancet journal. Long COVID is outlined as having new or ongoing signs 4 weeks or extra after the beginning of the illness, the researchers mentioned. Symptoms embody fatigue, shortness of breath, lack of focus, and joint ache, which might adversely have an effect on day-to-day actions, and in some circumstances could be severely limiting, they mentioned.
The researchers discovered that the chances of experiencing lengthy COVID have been between 20-50 per cent much less throughout the Omicron interval versus the Delta interval, relying on age and time since vaccination. “The Omicron variant appears substantially less likely to cause Long-COVID than previous variants but still 1 in 23 people who catch COVID-19 go on to have symptoms for more than four weeks,” mentioned examine lead writer Claire Steves from King’s College London, UK.
The examine recognized 56,003 UK grownup circumstances first testing constructive between December 20, 2021, and March 9, 2022, when Omicron was the dominant pressure. Researchers in contrast these circumstances to 41,361 circumstances first testing constructive between June 1, 2021, and November 27, 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant.
The evaluation exhibits 4.4 per cent of Omicron circumstances have been lengthy COVID, in comparison with 10.8 per cent of Delta circumstances.However, absolutely the variety of individuals experiencing lengthy COVID was in reality larger within the Omicron interval, the researchers mentioned.This was due to the huge variety of individuals contaminated with Omicron from December 2021 to February 2022, they mentioned.
The UK Office of National Statistics estimated the variety of individuals with lengthy COVID truly elevated from 1.3 million in January 2022 to 2 million as of May 1, 2022. “Given the numbers of people affected it is important that we continue to support them at work, at home and within the NHS,” Steves added.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”