Omicron symptoms 'mild', says South African doctor who spotted variant
The symptoms from the omicron COVID-19 variant are mild, according to the South African doctor who spotted the variant.
"Looking at the mildness of the (omicron) symptoms that we are seeing, currently, there's no reason for panicking as we don't see severely ill patients," Dr. Angelique Coetzee, who is the Chair of the South African Medical Association, told Reuters. "The hype that's been created currently out there in the media and worldwide doesn't correlate with the clinical picture. And it doesn't warrant to just cut us off from any traveling and ban South Africa, as if we are the variants in the whole process, it should not be like that."
![PHOTO: A healthcare worker collects a swab from a passenger for a PCR test against the Covid-29 before traveling to Uganda, amidst the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 28, 2021.](https://s.abcnews.com/images/General/covid-blog-omicron-south-africa-variant-01-rt-llr-21128_1638119003717_hpEmbed_3x2_992.jpg)
Coetzee said the most predominant complaints from those who have tested positive omicron are severe fatigue for a couple of days, as well as headaches and body aches.
-ABC News' Clark Bentson