Omicron period versus the Delta period, depending on age and time since vaccination. According to lead author Claire Steves from King's College London, UK, One in 23 people who cath Omicron can have Covid symptoms for more than four weeks. "The Omicron variant appears substantially less likely to cause long Covid than previous variants," Steves added.
The study identified 56,003 UK adult cases first testing positive between December 20, 2021, and March 9, 2022, when Omicron was the dominant strain.
Researchers compared these cases to 41,361 cases first testing positive between June 1, 2021, and November 27, 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant.
The analysis shows 4.4% of Omicron cases were long Covid, compared to 10.8% of Delta cases. However, the absolute number of people experiencing long COVID was in fact higher in the Omicron period, the researchers said.