There is a discussion of a new wave of corona these days all over the world including India. Every day the number of new cases is increasing very fast. The variant of the coronavirus that is being said to be responsible for the current wave is named Omicron.
Experts say that the satisfaction is that people from Omicron are not getting sick as seriously as was shown during the infection from previous variants, especially Delta. But the infection caused by Omicron spreads very quickly. Because of this, a large number of people are being advised to follow social distancing. Let us understand what are its symptoms.
What are the symptoms of Omicron?
Most people who get infected with Omicron feel as if they have got a cold. Sore throat, runny nose, and headache. When infected with earlier variants of the corona, it often happened that people lost their sense of smell or taste, or had a cough and high fever. However, officially these three symptoms are still considered to be definite symptoms of the corona.
Omicron Corona spreads much faster than the previous dangerous variant Delta. But, despite this, health experts say that Omicron is not that serious, and there is little chance that the infected person will be hospitalized.
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The main reason for this is that either people have been vaccinated, or they have already been infected, due to which their body develops immunity. Omicron was first detected in South Africa, but it is believed to have reached its peak there.
There are also indications in Britain that perhaps the peak situation has arrived. But experts there say that problems may arise when Omicron starts infecting large numbers of older people or people whose health is at risk of some kind.
How is Omicron's variant different from the others?
Viruses constantly mutate, that is, they constantly change the form, that is, their new version keeps coming. This is called a variant Some of these variants may be more dangerous, or there may be those that spread very quickly.
In the terminology of scientists, they are considered as Variants of Concern (VoC) i.e. 'a matter of concern'.Omicron is also one (VoC), as it has seen changes that have never been seen before.
Most of these changes have occurred in the parts of the virus where current vaccines attack. This part of the virus is called the spike protein.
How is the Omicron test done?
This can be confirmed only by RT-PCR test in which saliva sample is sent to pathology labs. There it can be found that this infection is from Omicron, or Delta, or something else.
By the way, if only to find out whether there is a corona infection or not, then a rapid test can also be done for this. But even if the result of the test is positive, it cannot be known whether it is Omicron, Delta, or something else.
Now, if Omicron's test is done for confirmation, how soon its results can be given depends on how many of the testing labs in that area have Omicron's testing technology available.
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For example, in a country like the UK, less than half of the labs have this technology. Even in India, this facility is not available in every lab in every area. Confirmation of Omicron requires genome sequencing, which takes four to five days.