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If your voice box becomes swollen or inflamed, usually due to a viral infection, you can't talk properly anymore. The movements and vibrations of those muscles, called the vocal cords, allow you to talk. You’ll need to rest and isolate yourself from others until symptoms subside, no matter what.Your larynx is made of two bands of muscles which stretch across the top of your windpipe (trachea) in your upper respiratory tract. But if you have a mild case, don’t spend too much energy trying to figure out which variant you caught. If you’re sick enough to need hospitalization, doctors might want to know which strain infected you, because certain therapies don’t work as well against Omicron as other versions of COVID-19, Sterling says. Symptoms offer clues, but even two people exposed to the virus at the same time could feel differently. You may never know unless health authorities send your sample out for genetic sequencing (and share the results with you). When you take most standard COVID-19 tests, you’ll only get a positive or negative result if you’re infected, it won’t tell you which strain is the culprit.

How can I tell if I’m infected with Omicron or another variant? But the variant is still new and research is ongoing. This could help explain both its reduced lethality and, potentially, why it often causes upper respiratory symptoms, like runny nose and sore throat. Researchers are still trying to answer that question, but the key “obviously lies in those multiple genetic changes that we’ve seen” in this variant compared to old ones, Sterling says.Įarly data suggest Omicron mostly accumulates in the upper airways, as opposed to penetrating the lungs. Why do Omicron symptoms differ from those of other variants?

It’s still a good idea to keep up precautions, particularly if you’re not fully vaccinated or are otherwise vulnerable. (More research is needed to determine how often this happens.) It’s also not entirely clear whether Omicron is itself milder than other versions of COVID-19, or whether population-level immunity from vaccinations and previous exposures is mitigating some of its worst outcomes, Sterling says. report from late December 2021 found that, compared to people infected by the Delta variant, people with Omicron-related infections were about half as likely to seek care in an emergency department or require hospitalization.īut even a mild case of COVID-19 can still make you feel quite sick and potentially lead to lasting complications like Long COVID. and New York City suggest that the variant causes milder disease than its older cousins. At least in areas where Omicron is prevalent, Sterling says, “the second you get respiratory illness, you have to presume it’s Omicron.” Are most people experiencing mild symptoms from Omicron?ĭata from early Omicron hotspots including South Africa, the U.K. Like ZOE, the Norwegian researchers also observed a significant decrease in smell and taste loss.Ĭlearly, symptoms can vary from person to person, so people shouldn’t assume they’re COVID-free just because they don’t have classic symptoms like cough and fever. And a small study from Norway found that, among people in one case cluster, a cough was the most common symptom associated with the variant, followed by runny nose and fatigue. South Africa’s largest health insurer listed nasal congestion, sore or scratchy throat, dry cough and lower back pain as common Omicron symptoms. Other research has come to slightly different conclusions.