COVID variant Omicron: What are the main symptoms? | BY Al Jazeera English

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The five most common symptoms associated with the omicron variant include runny nose, fatigue which can be mild or severe; headache; sore throat as well as sneezing; However there are other symptoms that are also common with other variants. These include coughing, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches, as well as loss of smell. Although this is less common with the omicron variant. Omicron is different than other variants because of the mutations. 32 mutations around the spike protein itself which mean that it has changed shape and is better able to enter the cells of the body and replicate faster, replicating 70 times faster than previous variants and has a higher ability to reinfect. So you're more likely three to four times more likely to be reinfected if you've had the previous covid with the Omicron variant. Overall, we also see that based on early data the reproduction number is between three to five. The existing vaccines still do help protect against severe symptoms of Omicron but we are seeing much higher rates of breakthrough infection with just two doses which is why it's very important to get a booster jab as well. With a booster, we see that protection against severe symptoms goes up to 80 percent compared to the halving effect that we've seen with Pfizer just with two doses alone. The risk of hospitalization has decreased with Omicron; however, due to its increased ability to transmit, it's very high transmissibility. This means that we have many more people who are affected with Omicron at the same time and the growth rate is much higher than for any other variant that we have seen before. So, because it's spreading much more quickly across the population, many more vulnerable people will all be sick at the same time. So the public health threat remains because it will apply a significant amount of pressure on a health care system. So even if Delta had higher rates of hospitalization, it impacted fewer people at the same time. We will see that younger people may have milder symptoms, but those with underlying conditions and the elderly will still be at a greater risk of hospitalization with omicron and can develop complications. Overall, if we look at the advantage that is given by being milder is essentially canceled out by the sheer rate of growth.

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✍ Vocabulary Review (find the word in the text that is suitable to each below description): 

1. any feeling of illness or physical or mental change that is caused by a particular disease
2. more liquid than usual
3. extreme tiredness
4. the way in which genes change and produce permanent differences
5. to make or do something again in exactly the same way
6. to infect again
7. A sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development.
8. an injection
9. the act of taking someone to hospital and keeping them there for treatment
10. the fact of a disease, etc. being able to be passed from one person or animal to another
11. able to be easily physically or mentally hurt, influenced, or attacked
12. not violent, severe, or extreme
13. real but not immediately obvious
14. used to emphasize how very great, important, or powerful a quality or feeling is; nothing except
15. an extra medical problem that makes it more difficult to treat an existing illness
16. to send air out from the nose and mouth in an explosive way that you cannot control

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