Interesting Omicron symptom may affect your Christmas lunch

A symptom of the Omicron Covid variant could first alert you to an infection as you sit down for Christmas lunch or dinner.

A symptom of the Omicron Covid variant could first alert you to an infection as you sit down for Christmas lunch or dinner today.

The infectious but possibly less severe strain of the virus is spreading at a rapid rate, with both New South Wales and Queensland recording their highest ever daily case numbers over the last 24 hours.

The good news is that a string of studies have shown Omicron could be milder than other strains, The Sun reports.

The first official UK report recently revealed the risk of hospitalisation is 50-70 per cent lower than with Delta.

Omicron could cause a loss of appetite. Picture: iStock

Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.

And there is evidence that Omicron-infected people could experience a previously less common problem – loss of appetite.

Losing your appetite is probably among the worst things that could happen to you over Christmas when a plentiful roast is in front of you.

A study compared symptoms reported by people that had tested positive for either the Delta or Omicron variants.

Experts said: “Contributor reports also identified loss of appetite and brain fog as common symptoms.

“These findings line up with a small batch of data from contributors who reported that their positive PCR results were suspected or confirmed Omicron infections.”

The most common symptoms of the virus in both Omicron and Delta infections were found to be:

1. Runny nose

2. Headache

3. Fatigue

4. Sneezing

5. Sore throat

Many thanks to Australians for taking us well past two million boosters (2.078 million).

42.2 million doses including a heartening 94,072 boosters yesterday as part of over 123,500 shots on Christmas Eve.

94.2% 1st and 91.1% 2nd doses.

— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) December 24, 2021

It comes as major changes are coming to Australia’s Covid booster program, with the wait times between jabs to be slashed.

Health Minister Greg Hunt announced on Friday the government would bring forward boosters from five months to four months from January 4 and to three months from January 31.

The changes were made following advice from Australia’s expert immunisation panel ATAGI.

“These dates have been set out of an abundance of caution to give Australians early continued protection,” Mr Hunt said.

“The advice we have is that the protection as it is very strong against severe illness, but what we’ll see is a much stronger protection against transmission.”

This story was originally published by The Sun and has been reproduced with permission.