Scientists from King’s College London found that people who are vaccinated and have had a booster shot against COVID-19 recover from the Omicron variant more than three days earlier than those with the Delta variant.
They also found that people with Omicron are much less likely to lose their sense of smell, and confirmed previous research that it is less severe.
The research is published in The Lancet and was conducted by Cristina Menni et al.
In the study, the team aimed to find out the differences in how Omicron and Delta make sufferers sick.
They used a free smartphone app called ZOE to access data from more than 63,000 vaccinated people in Britain aged 16-99.
These people self-reported their COVID symptoms between June 2021 and January 2022.
The team found 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.
The faster recovery suggests that the period of infectiousness might be shorter, which would in turn impact workplace health policies and public health guidance.
The team also found that only 17 percent of those with Omicron lost their sense of smell, compared to 53 percent for Delta.
But 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.
The study also found that Omicron patients were 25 percent less likely to be admitted to the hospital.
This was the first study with a large number of participants that looked at the different symptoms of the two variants.
Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
