Prognosis
The Humble Cough Drop Could Be Used to Map Omicron’s Spread
- Over-the-counter medicine sales have surged during outbreak
- Governments are phasing out costly widespread testing regimes
A customer at an Antigen Rapid Testing Self-Test Kits vending machine in Singapore.
Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
As governments around the world start to limit testing for Covid-19, the humble throat drop may become a gauge of how quickly omicron is spreading.
Sales of medicated lozenges and gargles, cough suppressants and over-the-counter pain relief medications have soared so high the products are often in short supply around the world, according to manufacturers and sellers. The trend has emerged even in countries where official testing numbers appear to show that active cases are falling.