Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the person who first brought attention to a new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, says the symptoms are “unusual but mild” in otherwise healthy patients.
The health expert believes that it is not time to panic as some have questioned the need to put travel bans in place.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee worries about those groups
Coetzee, who has a private practice in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, remains worried about complications for two groups — the elderly and unvaccinated.
Patients with comorbidities such as diabetes or heart disease are those that keep her up at night. She stated: “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.”
The health expert has practiced medicine for 30 years and is the chair of the South African Medical Association (SAMA).
Coetzee talks about odd symptoms in patients with new COVID-19 virus variant
The odd symptoms that she spotted include extreme fatigue and a very high pulse rate. However, a loss of sense of taste and smell, a usual marker for the virus, was not present in those patients.
On November 18, she reached out to South Africa’s vaccine advisory committee after four family members tested positive for the virus with the new symptoms.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Coetzee revealed: “Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before.”
Since that initial contact with the committee, close to 30 of her patients tested positive and showed symptoms linked to the Omicron variant. Most of those patients are young men, and half of them are unvaccinated.
Coetzee elaborated: “It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well. So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected, some are currently being treated at home.”
The doctor brought up the case of a six-year-old girl that had her doing some thinking. She explained: “[the girl] had 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.”
Biden administration bans travel to some African countries
Officially, they are no cases with the Omicron variant in the United States at the moment. However, President Joe Biden has announced on Friday that a travel ban would be put in place for eight African countries.
The nations concerned by the ban are South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.
This new measure will go into effect on Monday. Some critics have blasted Mr. Biden for doing what President Donald Trump had done.
Others have said that a ban might be unnecessary at this point. Some countries in Europe have adopted similar measures.
Cases of Omicron have been detected in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Australia, Israel, Hong Kong, and Botswana.
The variant first appeared in South Africa.
