Omicron virus shedding no different to Delta: study
US research suggests patients with the variant are infectious for an average of six days
Patients with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 remain contagious for just as long as patients infected with earlier variants, according to a small study.
The US authors pointed out that clinical features of an Omicron infection, including incubation period and transmission rates, were different from earlier variants.
However, it was not well understood whether the duration of shedding of viable virus differed between Omicron and previous variants.
Researchers took blood samples from 56 newly-diagnosed patients, including 37 with Delta infections and 19 with Omicron infections, in the report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review.
