What are the differences between omicron and delta variants?
What are omicron and delta variants?
Omicron and delta are 2 variants of coronavirus. Omicron is a new variant of coronavirus and first reported in Nov 2021 from Botswana. It was classified as B.1.1.529. This variant had a large number of mutations. Delta variant of coronavirus had been reported earlier to omicron and first deification in India was in late 2020.
The most common symptoms of Omicron
As infections of the Omicron Covid-19 variant is spreading around the world, reports say quiet different sets of this variant from the other variants of SARS-CoV-2. The complications related to coronavirus delta variant infections can continue for months even after recovering. The patients who have suffered mild to moderate infections of Delta variant fever, cough, tiredness, loss of taste or smell were the most common symptoms.
The five most common symptoms of the Omicron Covid variant are:
- Nasal congestion and runny nose
- Cough
- Fatigue
- Generalized body ache
- Severe headache
- Diarrhoea
Symptoms of Delta
Most common symptoms of Delta:
Fever, cough, Sore throat, headache, tiredness, loss of taste or smell, skin rash, discolouration of fingers or toes red, irritated eyes.
Serious symptoms of Delta:
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, low oxygen saturation, extreme tiredness and high fever.
How to know infection is with Omicron variant?
One of the common signs of COVID Omicron variant is body ache and throbbing headache. Patients also have night sweats that may arise you at night, which indicate symptoms of the new Omicron variant. Apart from the three main symptoms, the very unusual symptoms of the third wave is loose motions and abdominal cramps, Most Doctors says omicron is associated with severe headache, body ache and backache. A bad cold with a runny nose and a throat ache also is a indication of Omicron.
How omicron is different from Delta?
Researchers found that Omicron is about 2.7–3.7 times more infectious than Delta even in the vaccinated and boosted people. On the unvaccinated people, however, there was no significant difference in the rates of infection. Omicron might not lead to breathlessness like Delta or the other previous variant of the COVID-19 because possibly the new variant multiplies in the throat instead of the respiratory system. Due to this, the impact of Omicron infection is likely to be minimal on the lungs. Unlike Delta infection in which a large group of the population was hospitalized and suffered from pneumonia, and died, the same might not happen in the case of the new Omicron variant.
How to contain infection with Omicron variant?
The starting symptoms of Omicron is body ache, generalised weakness, fatigue, throbbing headache in the initial days. Fever seen in almost 50% of patients in the initial days. There might be cough mostly dry along with cold and runny nose, sneezing, etc. The cough is typically dry which resolves over the next few days. Most of the time fever resolve within 3 days. If all the conditions do not improve within 5 days, then it can be a sign of moderate to severe infection which needs close monitoring.
Isolating is crucial for preventing the spread of infection to other family members and doing it at the right time is the key. Rapid antigen test must be done immediate. If the symptoms are there but the rapid antigen is negative, RTPCR test must be done to assure covid and ensure to stop spreading it to more people. The Omicron infection is much more infectious than the other mutant so we need to be very cautious.
Hope the information about difference between omicron and delta variants is useful.
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Disclaimer: This is an educational and informational post/article. Information on Covid keeps changing, so for the latest updates, readers should visit the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) websites, along local news sources for updated information.
omicron and delta variants
