A new study from King's College London has come to light which states that the Omicron variant is less likely to cause lingering symptoms as compared to the Delta Variant.
The study was published in The Lancet Journal which states that the odds of experiencing long Covid were between 20-50% less during the Omicron period versus the Delta period, depending on age and time since vaccination. Long Covid is defined as having new or ongoing symptoms for four weeks or more, the researchers said.
"The Omicron Variant appears substantially less likely to cause long Covid than previous variants," Lead author Claire Steves from King’s College London said.
One in 23 people who had Omicron can have Covid symptoms for more than four weeks. The study identified 56,003 UK adult cases first testing positive between December 20, 2021, and March 9, 2022, when Omicron was the dominant strain.
Researchers compared these cases to 41,361 cases first testing positive between June 1, 2021, and November 27, 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant. The analysis shows 4.4% of Omicron cases were long Covid, compared to 10.8% of Delta cases.
Even though the number of people experiencing long covid was more in the Omicron phase, that is due to the fact that more people were affected with Omicron as compared.
After over two years of the World Health Organisation declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic, the pandemic still continues, researchers are slowly learning more about COVID-19 symptoms, including those that linger within the body, now known as long COVID.
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