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New Omicron variants spark up changing COVID symptoms, health officials say
Health officials reported that two new Omicron variants have taken over and are now dominant in the U.S. and the South. Hear from FOX 5 Medical Team's Beth Galvin and health practitioners that as variants change, symptoms can change as well.
ATLANTA - Two new COVID-19 variants, B.4 and B.5, are now the dominant strains circulating in the US.
According to new CDC estimates the two variants make up about 53% of cases in the South and just over half of infections in the US, which is averaging just over 100,000 new cases a day.
"This is still a very much big deal," says Lori Reed, the advanced lung disease nurse practitioner at the Piedmont Pulmonary COVID Recovery Clinic, where they treat patients with long COVID.
"I am glad that we have at home testing, I think in terms of public health, it was a huge stride in getting people at home testing, so they can know what's going on," Reed says.
But, she says, positive home tests are not included in official COVID-19 case counts, which typically include only PCR or lab-run tests.
"I don't want us to have a false sense of security that COVID is not real, because case reports are not as high as they were," Reed says.
As the variants change, Reed says, so can the symptoms.
"I also see patients regularly who tell me, 'I have these symptoms of cough, running nose, headache, but it's not COVID, because I'm not dying,'" she says. "And, what I tell them is the variants have changed, and the severity has changed. So, COVID symptoms do not mean you're in the ICU."
The B.4 and B.5 variants appear to cause less severe disease than earlier variants.
But, early data shows the variants may be able to get around some protective antibodies produced when a person is vaccinated or has recovered from a prior infection.
So, Reed cautions patients not to dismiss their symptoms as something else.
"What you have are very real COVID symptoms, and COVID symptoms can be very mild, like you have right now," she says. "But, it's still important to make sure you don't transfer those mild symptoms to other people. So, still, wear your mask, practice good hand hygiene, and quarantine when you test positive and have these symptoms."