People infected with the omicron variant are reporting two symptoms not previously related to COVID, and if you are experiencing them, it could mean that you have COVID and do not realize it.
“Good Morning America” co-anchor Amy Robach said in a recent Instagram post that she experienced these previously unreported symptoms of COVID-19 after suffering from a breakthrough infection. The two symptoms included exhaustion and lower back pain.
Robach said that she thought these early omicron variant symptoms were from hard training runs — not from the coronavirus.
“Just thought I was pushing myself too hard with my training runs!! It’s now day six since symptoms started, so hopefully, getting stronger every day, was even able to jog a few slow miles in the snow — no one else was crazy enough to run in that️ so I had the path to myself! Hunkering down now and wishing everyone a safe and beautiful weekend.”
The experts say that Robach is right and that back pain and extreme fatigue do seem to be a symptom related to omicron infections. Back pain, though common in most viral fevers, but compared to Delta, Omicron patients tend to have more back pain and less loss of smell and taste,” said Dr. Ann Mary, a consultant of general medicine at Amrita Hospital in Kochi, told IANS, per Business Standard.
And CBS News has reported that back pain has ranked among some of the most common COVID-19 symptoms in recent months. A 2020 research review showed that pain is one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19 and often appears as one of the early symptoms, sometimes in the absence of other symptoms.
Specific to back pain, it often appears in the early stages of the disease, but it can also be a long-haul symptom that persists for weeks or months after infection.
General body aches, muscle pain, or joint pain are common symptoms of COVID-19 and other viral infections. It’s thought that pain is primarily caused by your body’s immune response.
Much like the body aches experienced with the Flu, a COVID infection can stimulate the release of pro-inflammatory molecules called cytokines by your immune system. These molecules stimulate the formation of another molecule called prostaglandin E2 that acts on your nerves and sends pain messages to your brain. It has also been suggested that It’s also been suggested that the virus that causes COVID-19 may cause tissue damage that plays a role in pain development.
Feeling fatigued has always been a symptom of coronavirus, but “extreme exhaustion” seems to now be a primary symptom of the omicron variant. Those infected with omicron report feeling entirely “wiped out” and being barely able to move. This extreme fatigue seems a more common symptom in omicron than the loss of taste or smell associated with delts and the other earlier forms of COVID.
