The South African doctor discussed the unusual symptoms of infection with the novel COVID strain B.1.1.529.
The symptoms of the new COVID variant found in South Africa are unique but mild, according to the first South African doctor to warn authorities about patients with the omicron variant.
Dr Angelique Coetzee said she was first alerted of the possibility of a novel strain when patients in her busy private practice in the South African capital Pretoria began to present with symptoms of Covid-19 that did not make immediate sense earlier this month.
What are the symptoms of Omicron variant?
She claimed they included young people of various backgrounds and nationalities who were quite tired, as well as a six-year-old child with a very high pulse rate. There was no loss of taste or smell in any of the patients.
“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” says Dr Coetzee, a GP for 33 years who chairs the South African Medical Association alongside running her practice.
She claims that roughly a half-dozen of her patients have tested positive for Covid-19 and are experiencing symptoms due to the new strain. They were primarily healthy men who showed up “feeling so tired.” Nearly half of them had not been immunized.
“We had one very interesting case, a kid, about six years old, with a temperature and a very high pulse rate, and I wondered if I should admit her. But when I followed up two days later, she was so much better,” Dr Coetzee says.
Dr. Coetzee, who briefed other African medical groups on Saturday, made it clear that her patients were all healthy, but she was concerned that the new variant may still impact older people, especially those with co-morbidities like diabetes or heart disease, considerably worse.
“What we have to worry about now is that when older, unvaccinated people are infected with the new variant, and if they are not vaccinated, we are going to see many people with a severe [form of the] disease,” she adds.
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