Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 31;4(6):322-326.
doi: 10.35772/ghm.2022.01069.

Long-term sequelae of different COVID-19 variants: The original strain versus the Omicron variant

Xuejiao Liao  1 , Yuan Guan  1   2 , Qibin Liao  1 , Zhenghua Ma  1 , Liping Zhang  1 , Jingke Dong  1 , Xiaojuan Lai  1 , Guoqin Zheng  1 , Sumei Yang  1   3 , Cheng Wang  1   3 , Zhonghui Liao  1   3 , Shuo Song  1 , Hongyang Yi  1 , Hongzhou Lu  1
Affiliations

Long-term sequelae of different COVID-19 variants: The original strain versus the Omicron variant

Xuejiao Liao et al. Glob Health Med. .

Abstract

Although Omicron appears to cause less severe acute illness than the original strain, the potential for large numbers of patients to experience long COVID is a major concern. Little is known about the recovery phase in cases of Omicron, highlighting the importance of dynamically monitor long COVID in those patients. Subjects of the current study were patients available for a three-month follow-up who were admitted from January 13 to May 22, 2020 (period of the original strain) and from January 1 to May 30, 2022 (period of Omicron). Twenty-eight-point-four percent of patients infected with the original strain had long-term symptoms of COVID-19 and 5.63% of those infected with the Omicron strain had such symptoms. The most common symptom was a cough (18.5%), followed by tightness in the chest (6.5%), in patients infected with the original strain. Fatigue (2.4%) and dyspnea (1.7%) were the most commonly reported symptoms in patients infected with the Omicron strain. The respiratory system is the primary target of SARSCoV-2. Supportive treatment is the basis for the treatment of respiratory symptoms in patients with COVID-19. Quality sleep and good nutrition may alleviate fatigue and mental issues. Further knowledge about a long-term syndrome due to Omicron needs to be discussed and assembled so that healthcare and workforce planners can rapidly obtain information to appropriately allocate resources.

Keywords: Omicron variant; SARS-CoV-2; long COVID; long-term sequelae.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Characteristics and prevalence of the long-term (more than 3 months after diagnosis) clinical sequelae of COVID-19. (A) The prevalence of specific sequelae in cases involving the original strain. (B) The frequency of specific sequelae in cases involving omicron.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. WHO. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/ (accessed September 1, 2022).
    1. El-Shabasy RM, Nayel MA, Taher MM, Abdelmonem R, Shoueir KR, Kenawy ER. Three waves changes, new variant strains, and vaccination effect against COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Biol Macromol. 2022; 204:161-168. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Garg M, Maralakunte M, Garg S, et al. . The conundrum of 'long-COVID-19': A narrative review. Int J Gen Med. 2021; 14:2491-2506. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cabrera Martimbianco AL, Pacheco RL, Bagattini ÂM, Riera R. Frequency, signs and symptoms, and criteria adopted for long COVID-19: A systematic review. Int J Clin Pract. 2021; 75:e14357. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Antonelli M, Pujol JC, Spector TD, Ourselin S, Steves CJ. Risk of long COVID associated with delta versus omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. Lancet. 2022; 399:2263-2264. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources