DOCTORS warn that people experiencing night sweats may have the Omicron Covid variant but are mistaking it for a common cold.
Typical Covid symptoms include a dry, continuous cough; a high temperature; and a loss of your sense of taste or smell.
Yet Omicron has brought with it a string of new symptoms to be on the lookout for.
Despite the uptick in cases caused by the spread of Omicron, medical experts say that the Covid vaccine and its booster are the best way to battle the illness.
Vaccine effectiveness & Omicron
Expert studies have shown that the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 is reduced by 90 percent or more among people who are fully vaccinated.
While there are breakthrough cases of Covid among people who are vaccinated, they are rare.
In the event of a breakthrough case, victims are highly unlikely to be hospitalized with severe or deadly symptoms from the virus.
Health officials have advised that the Omicron variant is more infectious and could lead to further breakthrough cases.
Yet the spread can be offset by all vaccinated Americans receiving a booster shot.
Current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant.
With other variants, like Delta, vaccines have remained effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death.
Studies have also shown that side effects from the vaccine are extremely rare.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The vaccine has proven effective in preventing hospitalizations and death among reported breakout cases in the fully vaccinated.
The CDC and Joe Biden's administration has continued to urge Americans to line up for their first two doses and the booster as it has also proven effective against any severe symptoms of Covid.
While in the early days of the pandemic, Covid patients were reporting a loss of taste and smell, fewer people are reporting this with Omicron.
"With the previous COVID variants, including delta, the main sign was that lots of taste or smell," Dr John Torres, NBC News senior medical correspondent, told TODAY.
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“But people are reporting night sweats, which is a very strange symptom that they say they’re having."
“Since the beginning of this pandemic with Covid it's always been a bucket of crazy symptoms,” Dr. Davey Smith, UCSD Chief of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, told CBS 8 as he spoke about the increase in reports of night sweats as a symptom
One patient told the network that when he began to have night sweats, he was not aware it was a symptom until he looked it up online.
"I mean waking up in the middle of the night just soaking," said Jason Borgmann.
"My giant forehead was covered in sweat. My pillow looked like a glass of water had been spilled onto it and the sheets were soaked.'
He added that the sweats lasted four nights.
Borgmann had also noted another unusual symptom in his daughter who was complaining about lower back pain.
He advised people to "not assume you have a cold" but to get tested.
RASHES AND BACK PAIN
Experts have also warned that various skin rashes have also presented in people who contract Omicron.
People reporting symptoms say that they have experienced hives that come on suddenly.
It can show up in the form of raised bumps and is very itchy – it can often start with intense itchy palms or soles.
Infections, such as a virus-like Covid can cause hives in some people and are more common in children.
It's key to know though that a variety of infections, including the common cold, can prompt hives.
Many people who have been infected with the Omicron variant have described the symptoms as being more cold-like.
It's for this reason that many people are missing Omicron infections as they can be mistaken for symptoms that are mostly associated with a winter cold.
Doctors have said that one of the first signs of Omicron can be detected in your throat.
“We've know the most common in terms of cough headache, fatigue, fever and those are still the case with omicron but there are other things losing taste and smell, scratchy throat, feeling a little run down,” said Dr Smith.
NEW SYMPTOMS
These new symptoms could mean that many people are missing infections as a scratchy throat could be part of a cold, and many people could mistake back pain for common aches and niggles.
As the symptoms vary, Torres advised that people should treat any illness like it is Covid until they are tested.
"So if you start getting sick, essentially you have to assume it's COVID unless proven otherwise," he explained.
"And by that I mean make sure you isolate yourself (and) get a test to make sure it's not COVID.
"You notice there's a lot of overlap in those symptoms, and that's why it can be so hard to tell the difference between all of them," Torres added.
"The flu hits you right away.
"If you’ve ever had the flu, you know you get to a point where you can’t get out of bed.”
However, Torres advised that "one of the biggest things is you want to avoid self-diagnosing".
"That means if you're displaying any symptoms, you want to go ahead and get tested," he said.
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