Omicron caused huge spikes in UK Covid cases, sweeping across the country and at one point registering well over 200,000 confirmed cases a day in early January.
The coronavirus symptoms recorded by people were different from those of previous variants of concern, such as the Delta variant.
The NHS still lists the official Covid symptoms as a loss of taste or smell, a continuous cough and a high temperature. This hasn't changed since the start of the pandemic.
There has been plenty of research into how Omicron symptoms may be different, such as most people reporting a runny nose, headache and sneezing, according to the ZOE Covid Study.
Fatigue was another common sign and a new study into Omicron looked into how tiredness affects men and women differently.
However, it isn't just symptoms of the virus itself that has affected the way people feel. Men and women have been coping or struggling with the pandemic as a whole in different ways.
Does Omicron affect men and women differently?
A Web MD poll was taken from December 23 2021 to January 4 2022, and looked at if 'Covid fatigue' affects men and women differently.
This poll did not necessarily record symptoms, but how people have been reacting to the recent circumstances.
It found that 34% of men answered they felt fatigued as a result of the pandemic, but this applied to 40% of women.
Fatigue was described as "being angry, exhausted, frustrated or just plain fed up with disruptions to your life or those of your family and friends".
This means people said they were feeling fatigued due to the restrictions the pandemic has caused, rather than due to actual symptoms.
Younger people seemed to have had a rougher time in dealing with the changes.
The poll said: "Among those younger than 45, almost half (46%) said they felt Covid fatigue daily, compared with 31% of their 45-and-older colleagues. 27% in the younger group said they had the fatigue a few times a week, as opposed to 18% in the older group. Four times as many in the older group (21%, vs. 5%) said they rarely had the symptoms."
Why is the pandemic making me tired?
It is still hard to say if there are true differences between how the Omicron affects men and women and if it does so differently. More research needs to be done to confirm anything.
Further research also needs to look into if the actual circumstances of the how pandemic is affecting people, as the Web MD poll may help indicate.
Minnesota-based clinician Stacy Boone-Vikingson told Healthline : "We’re seeing a lot more patients complaining about not being able to sleep well, having the ‘not having a lot of energy’ type of feeling."
She went on: "Not knowing from day to day what work is going to look like or schools will look like for their kids… that’s definitely been a switch up for them, having everybody at home all the time, and just having so many things going on in the home at one time where they can’t get that break they need."
