New research has found that the Omicron variants are less likely to have long-term COVID compared to the delta variants.
An analysis of data from the ZOE COVID Symptom Study app by researchers at King’s College London is published in a paper today the Lancet, The findings are from the first peer-reviewed study to report on long-term COVID exposure and the Omron variant.
Long COVID is defined by NICE guidelines as having new or ongoing symptoms four weeks or more after the onset of illness. Symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, lack of concentration and joint pain. Symptoms can adversely affect day-to-day activities, and in some cases can be severely limited.
The researchers found that those during the Omicron period versus the delta period were 20-50% less likely to experience prolonged COVID, depending on age and time since vaccination.
The study identified 56,003 UK adult cases who had previously tested positive between 20 December 2021 and 9 Marchth 2022 when Omicron was the dominant strain. The researchers compared these cases to 41,361 cases that first tested positive between 1 June 2021 and 27 November 2021, when the delta variant was dominant.
The analysis shows that 4.4% of Omicron cases were chronic COVID, compared to Delta’s 10.8% of cases. However, the absolute number of people experiencing prolonged COVID was actually higher in the Omicron period. This was due to the huge number of people infected with Omicron from December 2021 to February 2022. The UK’s Office of National Statistics estimated that the number of people with chronic COVID-19 actually increased from 1.3 million in January 2022 to 1 to 2 million as of January 2022.scheduled tribe May 2022.
Lead author, Dr Claire Steves, from King’s College London, said: “The Omicron variant is significantly less likely to cause long-term COVID-19 than the previous variant, but is nonetheless 1 in 23 people who develop COVID-19. catches-19, has symptoms for more than four weeks. . Given the number of people affected it is important that we continue to support them at work, at home and within the NHS.”
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material provided by King’s College London, Note: Content can be edited for style and length.
