Runny nose, cold and cough. Do you still treat them as flu or the COVID scare has taken over you? It was not long before when cough and cold was never a cause of worry, however, since the pandemic hit the globe, even a hacking sound of cough is enough to give you a mini heart attack.
But didn’t winter call for flu and cold? Of course, it does. In fact, many of us must be prone to catching flu during the chilly months and it is only after a few days that we manage to recover from it. That said, given the current situation, it’s a crime to dismiss any symptom as flu and not pay heed to it.
Why, you ask? It’s because of the Omicron. So, if you are wondering how to differentiate between COVID-19 and flu, you may not able to. And it’s not us but the experts who are saying this.
The symptoms of COVID-19, particularly the Omicron variant, resemble those of the normal flu.
They include constant sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, cough, headache, body ache, fatigue and fever. This is why it practically becomes impossible to differentiate between the symptoms without undergoing a COVID test.
What makes it even more difficult to differentiate Omicron from the normal flu is that the variant doesn’t present with other symptoms like loss of taste and smell, nausea and even diarrhoea.
So, if you suffer from one or more such symptoms, it’s advisable to consult a doctor and not self-diagnose it as flu. While many are relieved for the fact that Omicron is less severe, however, several experts say, it’s too early to conclude that. Moreover, Omicron has a high infectivity rate, which makes it even more important to not ignore any symptoms.
A silver lining is that reports suggest several countries have, already, started treating Omicron as the normal flu but in the lack of proper evidence of the mildness of the variant, it might be too early to do that.
So, if all this while you have been under the perception of Omicron being milder than the other variants, you might want to give it a second thought before you underestimate the severity of COVID-19, already.