Long COVID Risk from Omicron Lesser Than Delta

The risk of long COVID is lower from Omicron compared to Delta variant. Long COVID as having new or ongoing symptoms four weeks or more after disease start.

The risk of long COVID is lower from Omicron compared to Delta variant, revealed a study.

Analysis by researchers from King’s College London of data from the ZOE COVID Symptom study app is published on 20th June in a letter to The Lancet.

Foods to Improve Memory Power | Memory Boosting Foods
Eating healthy nutritious foods can help improve memory power and prevent brain-related illness. Eat foods that have numerous health benefits for keeping your brain healthy.

‘NICE guidelines define long COVID as having new or ongoing symptoms four weeks or more after the start of the disease.’

The findings are from the first peer-reviewed study to report on long COVID risk and the Omicron variant.

Symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of concentration, and joint pain. The symptoms can adversely affect day-to-day activities and, in some cases, can be severely limiting.

Researchers found the odds of experiencing long COVID were between 20% and 50% less during the Omicron period versus the Delta period, depending on age and time since vaccination.

Long COVID Risk

The study identified 56,003 UK adult cases first testing positive between December 20, 2021, and March 9, 2022, when Omicron was the dominant strain. Researchers compared these cases to 41,361 cases, first testing positive between June 1, 2021 and November 27, 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant.

Memory Loss - Can it be Recovered?
Memory loss or amnesia can be recovered when the cause is reversible, like minor head injury, anxiety, depression, stress, hypothyroidism and vitamin B12 deficiency.

The analysis shows 4.4% of Omicron cases were long COVID, compared to 10.8% of Delta cases. However, the absolute number of people experiencing long COVID was higher in the Omicron period.

This was because of the vast numbers of people infected with Omicron from December 2021 to February 2022. The UK Office of National Statistics estimated the number of people with long COVID actually increased from 1.3 million in January 2022 to 2 million as of May 1, 2022.

Brain Exercises to Improve Memory
An active brain can certainly help in improving memory by strengthening the connections between neural impulses in brain.

Lead author Dr. Claire Steves from King’s College London, said: “The Omicron variant appears substantially less likely to cause long-COVID than previous variants but still 1 in 23 people who catch COVID-19 go on to have symptoms for more than four weeks. Given the numbers of people affected it’s important that we continue to support them at work, at home and within the NHS.”

Source-Eurekalert

Quiz on Memory Loss

“Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.” - Elie Wiesel

Whether it is a short term memory loss just as Dory in 'Finding Nemo' had or a more permanent one because of neurodegenerative diseases, it can adversely affect one's quality of life. Take this quiz to know more about interesting facts on memory loss / amnesia.