On June 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added three symptoms to its COVID-19 list: Congestion/stuffy nose, nausea and diarrhea. Those three new conditions now join other symptoms identified by the CDC: Fever.
"One new feature of cases caused by this variant is that it seems to be causing conjunctivitis, or red and itchy eyes, in young patients. This is not something that we've seen with prior strains of the virus," Dr. Binnicker adds. Red itchy eyes in young patients are symptoms of the new omicron variant.
Symptoms of Omicron can be similar to the original COVID-19 virus and other variants, which can include a combination of the following: fever, cough, congestion, runny nose, headache, sore throat, muscle pains/aches and fatigue. “Fever, cough and headache look to be the most common symptoms from the current data.
Symptom onset
The first symptoms of COVID-19 can be more gradual. While COVID-19 symptoms can develop as early as two days after you're infected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says five days after infection is typical.
In a study of more than 60,000 people who reported their symptoms after testing positive for Covid-19, researchers found that a small percentage of participants experienced ringing in their ears, sore eyes, rashes, red welts on their faces or lips, hair loss, and unusual joint pains.
Your infectiousness is highest 1 day before the start of your symptoms and begins to wane about a week later for most people. The Omicron variant has a shorter incubation period, compared to other variants. For the Omicron variant, the incubation period is 1 to 4 days.
For those without any underlying health issues, treating omicron is primarily supportive, similar to previous variants. Both Campbell and Johnson recommended using acetaminophen (Tylenol) when needed for symptoms that include headache, muscle aches or fever.
Delta variant symptoms are the same
Typically, vaccinated people are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms if they contract the delta variant. Their symptoms are more like those of a common cold, such as cough, fever or headache, with the addition of significant loss of smell.
The incubation period appears to be even shorter – about three days – for the Omicron variant. We know that people tend to be most infectious early in the course of their infection. With Omicron, most transmission occurs during the one to two days before onset of symptoms, and in the two to three days afterwards.
Norway reported a similar median Omicron incubation period of 3 days (4). A study from Hong Kong, despite a small sample size (n = 13), similarly reported the estimated mean serial interval of BA.
You are most infectious (or contagious) in the first 5 days after your symptoms start. You can also spread COVID-19 in the 48 hours before your symptoms start. If you never have symptoms, consider yourself most infectious in the 5 days after you test positive.
Compared with the original “wild type” COVID-19 virus, which had an average incubation period of 6.65 days, the incubation period for subsequent variants shortened. The Alpha variant's incubation period was 5.0 days.
Since a sore throat is one of the hallmark symptoms of COVID-19, it's worth taking a moment to learn about the differences between pharyngitis that's caused by viruses (including sore throat with COVID-19, the flu, and the common cold) and pharyngitis that's caused by bacteria (including strep throat).
Green and cloudy: viral or bacterial infection
A lot of the symptoms of viral infections – fever, cough, headache, loss of smell – overlap for COVID-19 and other viral infections like the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and the common cold.
The research shows that covid-19 headaches are most similar to either tension headaches or migraines. The symptoms of tension-like headaches include: Moderate or severe pain. Pain on both sides of the head.
You may need to get tested even if you do not have symptoms. You can have COVID-19 and spread it to others even if you do not have symptoms. Your COVID-19 test can be negative even if you are infected. Most people do not test positive for the virus until days after exposure.
A negative COVID-19 test means the test did not detect the virus, but this doesn't rule out that you could have an infection. If you used an antigen test, follow FDA recommendations for repeat testing. If you have symptoms: You may have COVID-19 but tested before the virus was detectable.
Incubation periods for Omicron BA. 1 were reported to be 3.3 days in Norway, 4.6 days in South Korea, 3.2 days in the Netherlands, 3.1 days in Spain, and 2.9 days in Japan (6,10,11); incubation period for BA. 2 was 4.4 days in Hong Kong (12).