BENGALURU: A combination of vaccination and mild symptoms in people affected by the Omicron variant of Covid-19, has resulted in fewer patients reporting post-Covid symptoms, and the ones that do, have less severe symptoms compared to what doctors observed in the first two waves of the pandemic.
Post-Covid symptoms seen in the third wave by hospitals include residual cough, slight shortness of breath, fatigue, sore throat, myalgia, headache, hair fall, etc.
“The third wave of Covid-19 primarily affects the upper respiratory system that causes dry cough and sore throat, which may persist long after the viral infection. The incidence of post-Covid symptoms caused by Omicron does not seem to cause a high or persistent rise in inflammatory markers in the body during infection,” said Dr Brunda MS, Consultant - Internal Medicine, Aster CMI Hospital.
Similarly, Dr Ravindra Mehta, Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Interventional Pulmonology, Apollo Speciality Hospital, said that Omicron is a throat and upper respiratory virus that has not gone below and caused pneumonia.
It also did not enter the bloodstream and cause any other complications, like previous variants.
“There are much fewer people reporting to hospitals with post-Covid symptoms of serious nature. The cough seems to last a little longer than most other symptoms. Hence, most people are not getting admitted to hospital,” Dr Mehta added.
Dr Shivakumar, Consultant Pulmonologist, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital, too observed that fewer people are reporting post-Covid symptoms in the third wave.
“The symptoms were quite severe in the second wave because many people were diagnosed with Covid pneumonia. People who recover from severe Covid infection suffer from cryptogenic organising pneumonia, which requires medical attention,” he informed.
Dr Brunda, however, cautioned that even mild cases of Covid-19 can trigger post-Covid symptoms and follow-up care must not be ignored.
Post-Covid symptoms can happen no matter which virus variant occurs, she said.