People with the Omicron variant show “very mild” symptoms and do not need to be hospitalized yet, says the South African doctor who first reported it.

• A South African doctor who first flagged the Omicron variant said her patient had mild symptoms.

• Dr. Angelique Kotze said there was no need to hospitalize anyone with the new variant.

• That said, it is premature to determine the risk of severe disease variants and the potential for avoiding immunity.

A South African doctor who first reported the Omicron variant states that the symptoms have been “very mild” so far and no one has been hospitalized yet.

Dr. Angelique Kotze, practitioner and chairman of the South African Medical Association, said: Speaking to the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” The Omicron patient she saw reported on Sunday that she felt “extreme fatigue” with body aches and headaches.

She also stated that the patient did not cough or lose the odor and taste typical of COVID-19.

“What we see clinically in South Africa is … very calm for us, it’s a calm case,” Coetzee said.

She also said that anyone with a variant of Omicron has not yet been hospitalized.

However, Coetzee states that it is too early to identify many factors for the new variant.she said Parents Last week in a mild case: “Maybe two weeks from now I have another opinion, but this is what we are seeing.”

It is also premature to determine if these symptoms are the same for all people infected with Omicron. Scientists are also still uncertain whether Omicron poses a greater risk than other mutants or what the risk of a serious disease of the mutant is.

Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist at the UTHealth School of Public Health, Said to insider Aria Bendix: “I’m still not sure if this new variant outperforms Delta, and I’m still not sure if the vaccine can be avoided.”

Omicron (known as the B.1.1.529 variant) was first identified in Botswana and South Africa, and subsequently detected in Israel, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Australia, Belgium and Hong Kong. .. ..

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Canada reported The first two cases of Omicron variants in North America on Sunday.

Cases in other parts of the world also appear to be mild.

One of the people infected with the Omicron variant in Essex, England, was “feeling good” and did not require hospitalization, Dr. Michael Gogarty, director of public health at Essex, I told Sky News on Monday.

Coetzee said she was the first to suspect a new variant when a private practitioner patient in Pretoria began reporting COVID-19 symptoms different from the predominant Delta variant in early November.

who A variant of concern labeled Omicron last Friday. The countries of Europe, Asia and North America Travel restrictions In countries in southern Africa.

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