Covid Omicron 5 variant: symptoms and incubation

By Cristiano Antonino On Jul 14, 2022

Omicron 5: three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic we are still dealing with a contagious and extremely mutable virus: from Alpha to the more significant Delta and then Omicron

Precisely the Omicron variant is so far the mutated version of the virus that has generated the most cases globally due to its sub-variants, such as the most recent Omicron 5 (BA.5).

Covid variant Omicron 5

First reported in early 2022 in South Africa, the Omicron 5 variant is now one of the most prevalent Sas-CoV-2 virus subvariants in the world.

What makes it different from the others is its higher contagiousness, which allows it to spread even faster.

Preliminary data, in fact, state that the Omicron 5 variant has unique characteristics that give it the ability to evade the immune system even of people who have already recovered from a previous Covid-19 infection and those who have been fully vaccinated.

In practice, this variant can reinfect people who were immune to previous forms of Omicron and other variants.

Symptoms of the Omicron 5 variant

The Omicron 5 variant also presents fairly common and unceremonious symptoms, superimposable to a cold.

Typically, the infection presents with:

A stuffy and runny nose
Fatigue, tiredness and widespread malaise
Sore throat and cough
Headache and fever

However, there is no shortage of people who also report muscle pain, reduced appetite, nausea and diarrhoea, while loss of taste and smell are increasingly rare.

In fact, symptoms vary in severity and duration due to various factors such as vaccination, age, general state of health and thus the immune system’s ability to react, and much more.

In any case, attention must always be paid to any shortness of breath, which must be reported immediately to the doctor and possibly monitored with a saturation meter.