With the Omicron variant on track to be the most prevalent strain of COVID-19 in Ontario, many residents are wondering what symptoms they should be on the lookout for to keep themselves and their loved ones safe ahead of the holidays.
Early data from South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first detected, show this strain of the virus to be milder than others.
But scientists say the data doesn’t tell the whole story, as South Africa’s population skews younger and many have already been infected with COVID-19 or are vaccinated, and thus have more antibodies to fight it.
“Those symptoms actually may be more representative of breakthrough infections, which are milder than a person who’s never been vaccinated, never been infected, having it for the first time,” said Kelly Grindrod, a pharmacist and professor at the University of Waterloo.
What scientists do know is Omicron multiplies at a rate about four times higher than the Delta variant and projections indicate it will cause Ontario’s case counts to skyrocket to the thousands in a matter of days.
On Thursday, Ontario reported 2,421new cases of COVID-19, nearly twice the number of new cases from last Thursday.
So as cases increase, what symptoms should people watch out for?
Dr. Alon Vaisman, an infectious disease specialist at University Health Network in Toronto, said there is no evidence yet to suggest Omicron’s symptoms are different from any other strain of COVID-19. But all symptoms exist on a spectrum from asymptomatic, to mild, to severe.
On the mild side, Vaisman said people infected could experience coldlike symptoms, such as sore throat, muscle pain, fatigue, runny nose or a cough.
As the infection worsens, symptoms could progress into shortness of breath or chest pain.
“If you’re fully vaccinated, as with other variants, you should anticipate that you’d have it on the milder end of the spectrum,” Vaisman said.
“However, it’s not entirely clear yet and the data is still developing.”
According to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, the most commonly reported symptom for Omicron is a cough, followed by fatigue, runny nose and fever.
Eight per cent of cases reported a loss of taste and smell. In the patient profile examined by the CDC, 80 per cent were fully vaccinated.
A media report out of the United Kingdom stated a smaller percentage of children with the virus — about 15 per cent — exhibited a rash. While those reports have not been duplicated locally or verified, Grindrod said rashes in general are symptoms of a viral infection in kids.
“It’s not unusual,” she said. Grindrod did warn, however, of a rare condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which could show up in children ages five to 11, two to six weeks after a COVID-19 infection — a serious syndrome that requires hospitalization, with a rash being one of its symptoms.
In all cases, experts say it’s important people limit contact with others and get tested if symptoms arise, even if they appear to be as mild as fatigue or a runny nose.
“People have some amount of denial about the possibility that any symptom they got could be COVID,” Grindrod said.
“Any time that you think you have a cold, that’s a good time to get a test.”
She added pharmacists have seen people come in for mild symptoms or to test as a precaution, only to end up with a positive diagnosis.
Some mild symptoms, like a small cough or a runny nose, may not have been as much of a cause for alarm in October or early November, Vaisman said, when COVID cases were low. But because there is more COVID-19 in the air right now due to the spread of Omicron, his main advice is to be cautious and get tested.
“There’s now more of a likelihood you have COVID if you begin to have symptoms,” Vaisman said. He also stressed the importance of getting vaccinated, as there’s no evidence suggesting Omicron causes milder disease in unvaccinated populations.
“It’s important for those who are still unvaccinated in Canada recognize that this is no less serious than Delta,” he said.