7 Most Common Omicron Symptoms In Kids

The most common symptoms of COVID-19's omicron variant detected in children between 8 and 12 were fatigue, headache, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, fever and cough, according to a study.

The list of symptoms was based on the preliminary results of research conducted on several hundred participants by the COVID Symptom Study, a collaborative effort between King's College London, Guy's Hospital and St. Thomas' Hospital that tracked coronavirus data via a digital application, Business Insider reported.

"Most children are getting upper respiratory/cold-like symptoms, regardless of age," Dr. John McGuire, chief of Seattle Children's Hospital pediatric critical care division, said.

Dr. Buddy Creech, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, also claimed he mostly saw respiratory symptoms in this wave.

Some of the participants in the COVID Symptom Study also developed croup, or barking cough, which is a common infection among children that made them sound like a barking seal or a dog whenever they coughed.

The condition appeared to be an omicron-specific symptom, said Dr. Lisa Saiman, a professor of pediatrics at Columbia's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Saiman, who is also an epidemiologist at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, added parents should not be worried about croup as it typically "gets better on its own."

The data from the COVID Symptom Study did not include asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.

Most of the children in the study's sample were vaccinated, but "very similar" patterns were also observed in unvaccinated children, according to Dr. Emma Duncan, a medical professor at King's College London.

Duncan noted that vaccination appeared to have diminished the frequency and length of the symptoms, but it was too soon to be sure.

The results of a previous study conducted by the COVID Symptom Study listed fatigue, headache, fever, sore throat and loss of appetite as the five most common symptoms detected in school-aged children who tested positive for the coronavirus.

In contrast, the same study found that the top five symptoms among infected adults were fatigue, headache, loss of smell, persistent cough and sore throat.

The United States has reported a total of 74,282,892 COVID-19 cases and 881,887 virus-related deaths, according to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.