For more than two years, the Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill as the virus spread across the globe.
While lockdowns and levels may now seem like a distant memory, the virus is still very much with us.
Cases have started to rise again, with warnings that Covid will again put pressure on the NHS this winter.
The last major spike in the pandemic, while restrictions were still in place, was courtesy of Omicron. The variant spread rapidly around the world after it was discovered in southern Africa last November and has since spawned a number of sub-variants.
Omicron proved to be less severe but more transmissible than its predecessor variants Alpha and Delta, with the total number of daily cases in England soaring to a then-pandemic peak of 218,724 on 4 January, before gradually disappearing except a revival inspired by its first subvariant, BA.2, in March.
Since then, only those over the age of 75 have received second booster shots, meaning immunity could be starting to wane and prompt calls for a new booster to be offered more widely.
The approval of Moderna’s new Omicron-specific jab is a welcome development for the UK in this regard and the vaccine could end up playing an important role in any other vaccine push to come.
Face masks are a much less common sight now, increasing the risk of spread
(PA)
Different strains, different impacts
What public health officials had to learn on the fly when this variant first arrived last winter was how it differed from the original strain of Covid.
While the World Health Organization estimated that it took two days to two weeks for symptoms to materialize in cases of people infected with the first strain of coronavirus, Omicron showed that it incubates much faster, closer to three or five days.
“Recent analysis by the UK’s Health Safety Agency suggests that the window between infection and contagiousness may be shorter for the Omicron variant than for the Delta variant,” said the UK’s then health secretary United, Sajid Javid, in the House of Commons on 6 December 2021.
This explained why the strain was able to spread so quickly and successfully, as the shortness of its incubation period gave patients a shorter window between suspecting they had contracted the virus and experiencing an outbreak, making a positive lateral flow test result was less likely. it would be recorded in time to warn others, go into isolation and prevent the contagion from being transmitted.
A shorter incubation period “makes a virus much, much, much harder to control,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, observed in The Atlantic that same month.
Another feature of Omicron that made it potentially more difficult to detect than previous strains was that its symptoms differed somewhat from the three main indicators we had been conditioned to be on the lookout for in 2020: cough, fever, and loss of consciousness of the taste or smell.
The NHS is bracing for another wave this winter
(son PA)
Symptoms to watch out for
Early warning signs for the newer variant, on the other hand, included a scratchy throat, backache, runny or stuffy nose, headache, muscle aches and fatigue, sneezing and night sweats.
Omicron cases analyzed in Britain found that patients usually recovered between five days and a week on average, although some symptoms such as cough and fatigue were likely to last longer.
The shortness of breath experienced by some sufferers was often shown to last up to 13 days after the other symptoms had passed.
Typically, patients with Covid are thought to be infectious to others from about two days before their first symptoms begin to materialize and for about 10 days afterward.
If you think you have symptoms associated with the coronavirus, current NHS advice is to have a lateral flow test and self-isolate at home for five days if you test positive to avoid passing it on to others (you need to stay away of anyone who may be particularly vulnerable because of their age or a pre-existing condition for 10 days).
If you must go out in public, we recommend that you wear a mask, avoid crowded indoor spaces, and wash your hands for at least 20 seconds.
If you are worried about your symptoms or think they are getting worse, we recommend visiting 111.nhs.uk, calling 111 or calling your local GP.