By KAYOKO SEKIGUCHI/ Staff Writer
May 27, 2022 at 16:37 JST
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike attends a meeting of the Tokyo metropolitan government’s COVID-19 monitoring panel on May 26. (Provided by the Tokyo metropolitan government)
Patients suffering from COVID-19 aftereffects were more likely to have persistent coughs and fatigue if they were infected with the Omicron variant instead of the Delta or other strains, a survey showed.
The survey by the Tokyo metropolitan government was based largely on data collected from eight hospitals run by the metropolitan government or the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Hospitals Corporation.
These hospitals offer telephone consultations to patients experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19.
The Tokyo Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention analyzed consultation records for 2,039 patients who tested positive for the Omicron variant between January and April.
The survey results released on May 26 showed the most common aftereffect among the Omicron patients was coughing, at 38.6 percent.
That was higher than the 22.2 percent among those infected with the Delta variant or previous strains of the novel coronavirus who consulted with the hospitals about aftereffects between March and October last year.
Thirty-four percent of recovering Omicron patients showed signs of fatigue, compared with 26 percent of patients infected with other variants.
Only 10.6 percent of Omicron patients said they are still suffering from an impaired sense of taste, while 23.3 percent of patients with other strains had reported that lingering symptom.
The figure for impaired sense of smell was 9.5 percent among Omicron patients and 30.4 percent of those infected with other strains, while the ratios for hair loss were 0.8 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively.
The report was presented at a meeting of the Tokyo metropolitan government's COVID-19 monitoring panel on May 26.
Panel members called on the public to continue taking precautions against the virus, saying young Omicron patients are also suffering from lingering COVID-19 symptoms.
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