Omicron victims are much less prone to expertise lengthy Covid than these with the Delta pressure, in response to a brand new research.
Researchers at King's School London discovered the chances of experiencing lengthy Covid had been between 20% and 50% decrease throughout the Omicron interval versus the Delta interval, relying on age and time since vaccination.
This comes as public well being specialists have warned of a potential new wave in Scotland, as instances of two Omicron variants rise.
Lengthy Covid is outlined by the Nationwide Institute for Well being and Care Excellence (Good) pointers as having new or ongoing signs 4 weeks or extra after the beginning of illness.
Lead creator Dr Claire Steves stated: "The Omicron variant seems considerably much less prone to trigger lengthy Covid than earlier variants however nonetheless one in 23 individuals who catch Covid-19 go on to have signs for greater than 4 weeks.
"Given the numbers of individuals affected it is vital that we proceed to assist them at work, at residence and throughout the NHS."
The research recognized 56,003 UK adults who examined optimistic between December 20 final yr and March 9 this yr, when Omicron was the dominant pressure.
Researchers in contrast these to 41,361 instances first testing optimistic between June 1 and November 27 final yr, when the Delta was the dominant variant.
The evaluation confirmed that 4.4% of Omicron instances ended up in lengthy Covid, in comparison with 10.8% of Delta instances.
Nonetheless, absolutely the quantity of people that had lengthy Covid was larger within the Omicron interval due to the huge numbers contaminated with the variant from December 2021 to February 2022.
The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics estimates the variety of individuals with lengthy Covid elevated from 1.3 million in January 2022 to 2 million as of Could 1, 2022.
Signs can embody fatigue, shortness of breath, lack of focus and joint ache.
In addition to affecting day-to-day actions, for some individuals the situation may be severely limiting.
The evaluation was performed by researchers from King's School London utilizing information from the Zoe Covid Symptom research.
The evaluation is revealed in a letter to The Lancet.
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