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Incubation period for Omicron BA.2: Symptoms can resemble corona variant

2022-04-20T09:08:24.210Z


Incubation period for Omicron BA.2: Symptoms can resemble corona variant Created: 2022-04-20 11:04 am By: Yannick Hanke Which symptoms indicate an infection with the omicron subform BA.2? And when do they even appear? There is a lot of speculation on this. Berlin – The corona virus has been keeping Germany busy since March 2020 and the first major restrictions. Since then, science has continua


Incubation period for Omicron BA.2: Symptoms can resemble corona variant

Created: 2022-04-20 11:04 am

By: Yannick Hanke

Which symptoms indicate an infection with the omicron subform BA.2?

And when do they even appear?

There is a lot of speculation on this.

Berlin – The corona virus has been keeping Germany busy since March 2020 and the first major restrictions.

Since then, science has continually discovered new mutations and variants.

Omicron is still omnipresent and is spreading rapidly.

To make matters worse, the sub-form BA.2.

is in circulation.

This is reported by kreiszeitung.de.

But what are the symptoms of an infection with Omikron BA.2?

And what is the incubation period like?

Incubation period and symptoms of Omicron BA.2: Corona variant affects the mouth and throat area as well as nails and skin

Omicron is a variant of the coronavirus. And BA.2, in turn, is a subtype of the Omicron variant.

However, this also has the consequence that variants or sub-forms can indicate other symptoms of an infection than is the case with the coronavirus itself.

The Federal Center for Health Education (BzgA) lists the typical symptoms of an omicron infection on its website “infection protection.de”.

These include a sore throat, a runny nose, an infection of the tonsils, swollen lymph nodes in the neck and sometimes a loss of smell or taste.

In fact, the mouth, nose and throat area are more affected by an omicron infection than other corona variants.

And even nails and skin can have symptoms.

But what about BA.2?

Omicron lower form BA.2 with significantly higher transferability than the Corona variant itself

The research situation with regard to the incubation period and specific symptoms is still comparatively thin.

Study data published as a preprint by researchers from Japan at least indicate that the subform BA.2 has a significantly higher transferability than the omicron in the corona variant BA.1 itself.

Corona: the incubation period and symptoms of the omicron variant could resemble the classic symptoms of a cold.

(Iconic image, kreiszeitung.de montage) © Christian Ohde/imago

After all: “Very early observations from Denmark suggest that there doesn’t seem to be a big difference between BA.1 and BA.2 in the severity of the disease”.

That's what virologist Sandra Ciesek says to the "Augsburger Allgemeine".

In addition, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced in February 2022 that there was no difference in the severity of the disease with Omikron for those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered - regardless of whether it was BA.1 or BA.2.

However, valid clinical data are not yet available.

BA.2 incubation period and symptoms may be different than Omicron

Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director of the Divi intensive care register, also pointed out via Twitter in February that one had to "keep a very close eye on BA.2".

Because: "There seem to be biological differences to BA.1".

In theory, this could also affect the symptoms of the omicron* subform and its incubation period.

But there is no certainty yet.

The incubation period means the time between infection with the pathogen and the appearance of the first symptoms.

For the corona virus itself, this time should be between five and six days before the first symptoms become noticeable.

The RKI had already commented on this at the beginning of the pandemic.

With regard to the omicron variant, various studies had shown that the incubation period here could amount to three days on average.

Whether this is also the case with omicron symptoms in children has not been definitively confirmed.

On the other hand, a new omicron symptom keeps research busy.

“Symptoms are often similar to a cold at the beginning”: an expert recommends doing a corona test if you suspect an infection with Omikron BA.2

Without specifically going into the omicron subform BA.2, the SRF science editor Katrin Zöfel makes a classification.

She is certain that both omicron variants “rather infect the upper respiratory tract”.

On the other hand, there is the delta variant, for example, which “can also infect deeper lung tissue well”.

Zöfel adds the following:

The symptoms are often initially very similar to a cold, so you should also take a test, even if an infection only feels like a cold.

Science editor Katrin Zöfel from "Swiss Radio and Television" (SRF)

However, it must also be taken into account that the incubation period is not the same as the time during which a person is contagious.

According to the RKI, the contagiousness is definitely “greatest in the time just before and after the onset of the symptoms in omicron”.

In addition, many transmissions would occur before the first clinical symptoms of omicron infection appear.

* kreiszeitung.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-20

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