Omicron: The Overlaps Between The New Variant And A Cold

The new Covid variant Omicron produces a different set of symptoms to past variants and can often be confused with a cold. 

Omicron symptoms include a scratchy throat, dry cough, extreme tiredness, mild muscle aches and night sweats.

The typical symptoms of Covid are also thought to still be present, with a high temperature, new continuous cough and loss/change to your sense of taste or smell among those to look out for.

When it comes to a common cold, symptoms include a blocked or runny nose, sore throat, headaches, muscle aches, coughs, raised temperature, pressure in your ears and face and loss of taste and smell.

There’s a lot of overlap. So, what should you do if you think you have Omicron?

He explained:

The predominant symptoms [of Omicron] are all cold like symptoms, over 50% of people never have classic symptoms. So they are getting headache, fatigue, sore throat, running nose.

He went on to clarify that with the new variant, the classic symptoms may be less prevalent, explaining a high temperature, new continuous cough and loss/change to your sense of taste or smell may be present but are not in the ‘top five’ experienced by Omicron sufferers.

Spector added that the ‘the risk is about one in four, one in five, of a cold symptom being Covid’.

So, whether you think it’s a cold or Covid, it’s best to get a PCR test.