Omicron lasts three days less than Delta for boosted: Study
SWITZERLAND, US: People who are vaccinated and have had a booster shot against COVID-19 recover from symptoms from the Omicron variant more than three days earlier than those with the Delta variant, a study said Friday.
The study also found that people with Omicron are significantly less likely to lose their sense of smell, and confirmed previous research that it is less severe.
To find out the differences in how Omicron and Delta make sufferers sick, researchers used a free smartphone app called ZOE on which more than 63,000 vaccinated people in Britain aged 16-99 self-reported their COVID symptoms between June 2021 and January 2022.
For those with two vaccine doses plus a booster, symptoms from Omicron lasted 4.4 days, compared to 7.7 for Delta — a difference of 3.3 days.
People who had two doses but no booster shot saw Omicron symptoms clear up in 8.3 days, compared to 9.6 days for Delta, according to the study published in the Lancet medical journal.
The study, which will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon later this month, also found that only 17 percent of those with Omicron lost their sense of smell, compared to 53 percent for Delta.
However people with Omicron had a 55-percent increased risk of getting a sore throat, and were 24 percent more likely to develop a hoarse voice.
Meanwhile, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tested positive for COVID-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with President Joe Biden.
Pelosi received a positive test result for COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic, her spokesman Drew Hammill said Thursday in a tweet. He said she had tested negative earlier in the week.
“The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided,” Hammill said.
Pelosi will “quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly,” he said.
– THE HINDUSTAN TIMES, JAPAN TODAY