Dr Angelique Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of South African Medical Association, has said that symptoms of the Omicron variant were so far mild and could be treated at home, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

She was one of the first to suspect a different coronavirus strain among patients.

Coetzee, who is also on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, said unlike the Delta variant, so far patients have not reported loss of smell or taste and there has been no major drop in oxygen levels with the new variant.

Also, her experience so far has been that the variant is affecting people who are 40 or younger.

Almost half of the patients with Omicron symptoms that she treated were not vaccinated.

"The most predominant clinical complaint is severe fatigue for one or two days. With them, the headache and the body aches and pain," she added.