A recent study published in The Lancet showed that the Omicron variant poses half the risk of long Covid in comparison to the Delta variant. The chances of developing long Covid were found to be 4.5% from the Omicron variant in comparison to 10.8% from the Delta variant. Dr. Claire Steves, King’s College, London, stated that the reduced risk is good news, especially when Omicron is highly contagious. She also added that if the risk of developing long Covid symptoms were the same as the Delta variant or higher, the number of people with long Covid would have exploded.

Dr. Steves and her colleagues have compared and tracked the patient symptoms for more than 56000 people in the UK, who got Omicron infection between December 2021 to March 2022 with 41000+ people in the UK who tested positive for Delta variant between June 2021 to December 2021. 

On the other hand, the research team warned that the lower risk does not mean people should not worry about long Covid as the study did not address the reason behind a lower risk of long Covid associated with Omicron variant infection. Dr. David Putrino, New York, stated that though the study highlights an important disease pattern, the likelihood of contracting Covid that can progress to severe chronic illness is around 5%, which is a significant figure.

(Source: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/975841 )