imago
This strange symptom at night could mean you have Omicron, doctors warn! Experts warn people to get tested for COVID if they notice this symptom in themselves – be sure to watch for this!
These symptoms are known
.
From loss of smell and taste to shortness of breath, the standard symptoms of COVID are well known to us. But as the virus has evolved, so have the symptoms it can cause. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, a new variant called Omikron is currently estimated to account for more than 95 percent of COVID infections in the U.S., and the mutation is flooding countries in Europe as well. Doctors are now warning that the signs of this version of the virus are a bit different from the way COVID has appeared in the past. Experts say there is even a new symptom that is becoming more common with the OmiKron variant. Read on to find out what strange sign you should be on the lookout for at night.
Night sweats could be a symptom of Omicron variant
.
If you have unusual night sweats, you may have COVID. “People are reporting night sweats, which is a very strange symptom,” Dr. John Torres, an emergency room physician and senior medical correspondent for NBC News, told Today on Dec. 28.
Night sweats can be caused by the Omicron variant, although they are not a common symptom in earlier strains of COVID. According to CaroMont Health, night sweats are not a common symptom of the original version of SARS-CoV-2 or even the recent Delta variant, but are now considered a common symptom of Omicron.
Doctors advise getting tested for COVID if you notice unusual night sweats
.
Night sweats are “repeated episodes of extreme sweating … related to an underlying medical condition or disease,” and not just the result of sleeping under too many blankets or in a room that’s too warm, according to the Mayo Clinic. Amir Khan, a general practitioner with the National Health Service (NHS) in the U.K., told the U.S. Sun that people who have this symptom due to COVID are likely to experience “this kind of night sweats where you have to get up and change your clothes.”
According to Khan, night sweats are a clear sign that you should get tested for COVID, especially if you don’t tend to sweat a lot at night. “This is important, and it’s important that we keep track of these symptoms. If we’re going to track Omicron globally, we need to be able to test people with these symptoms,” he said.
Omicron seems to cause more cold and flu-like symptoms
.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, night sweats can also be a sign of a cold or flu – but that’s not surprising given the other symptoms associated with Omicron infection. According to the UK Zoe COVID Study app, the five most common symptoms for the new variant are a runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and sore throat. Most of these symptoms are also signs of the flu or a cold, according to the CDC.
“A cold and Omicron are indistinguishable, in my opinion,” Dr. Eskild Petersen, a physician at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark and president of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, told The National.
For this reason, many doctors advise getting tested for COVID if they notice any of the symptoms mentioned. Knowing whether or not you have the coronavirus can help prevent it from spreading to others, especially those who are at higher risk for severe disease because of their vaccination status or comorbidities. “The Omicron variant is likely to spread more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus,” the CDC warns, adding that the agency believes that anyone infected with Omicron can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or have no symptoms.
With the new variant, many patients do not experience classic COVID symptoms
.
If you have any of these symptoms but are still waiting for a cough or loss of smell or taste to get tested – don’t do it. Doctors warn that the new Omicron variant is unlikely to cause any of the classic coronavirus symptoms. “Most people who test PCR positive have cold-like symptoms, not the classic triad of old COVID symptoms of fever, loss of smell and taste, and persistent cough,” Tim Spector, epidemiologist and founder of the Zoe COVID Study App, told Sky News.
Previous research has found that nearly half of patients infected with the original COVID strain suffered from loss of smell and 41 percent from loss of taste. A small analysis of an Omicron outbreak among vaccinated people in Norway found that only 23 percent reported taste loss and only 12 percent reported odor loss.
“Don’t wait for fever, loss of smell or cough – more than 50 percent of people in London never have these symptoms and still test positive,” Spector warned.