According to a study published in The Lancet journal, the Omicron variant is less likely to cause long-lasting symptoms, known as long COVID.
The researchers said that chronic Covid is defined as new or ongoing symptoms for four weeks or more. Researchers found that the chances of experiencing covid for a long time were between 20-50% less omicron Duration versus delta duration depends on age and time since vaccination.
According to lead author Claire Steves from King’s College London, UK, one in 23 people infected with Omicron may have symptoms for more than four weeks.
“The omicron version Compared to the previous variants, the chances of having a longer COVID appear to be significantly less,” Steves said.
The study identified 56,003 UK adult cases who had previously tested positive between 20 December 2021 and 9 March 2022, when Omicron was the dominant strain.
The researchers compared these cases to 41,361 cases that first tested positive between June 1, 2021, and November 27, 2021, when the delta variant was dominant.
The analysis shows that 4.4% of omicron cases were long covid, compared to 10.8% of delta cases.
However, the absolute number of people experiencing long-term COVID was actually higher in the omicron period, the researchers said.
He said this was due to the large number of people infected with Omicron from December 2021 to February 2022.
The UK Office of National Statistics estimated that the number of people with a chronic covid rose from 1.3 million in January 2022 to 2 million by May 1, 2022.