I may have already had Omicron. I read this article today:
The Omicron symptom common in many of those infected
It says that people with Omicron complain of a 'scratchy throat' as a common symptom. I came down with a cold last month, with symptoms beginning on the 26th of November (a Friday), which is the day that the WHO named Omicron as a variant of concern, after South Africa informed the WHO of the discovery on the 24th. I am pretty sure I caught it from a member of my household who came down with symptoms the Monday of that week, and who had slightly worse symptoms than I did. They went for a PCR test, as they developed a new cough, but the result came back negative. A negative PCR test is not proof of negativity, as a genuine positive case will test negative about thirty percent of the time. They were also required to take their own sample at the testing centre, as there were obviously no trained staff to perform testing. My cold did not have any of the classic Covid symptoms which qualify one for a PCR test (cough, fever, and loss of smell), so I just laid low for ten days, and my symptoms cleared up in that time.
But anyway, the most salient symptom of my brief illness was a sore throat, with a sensation that I would describe as scratchy. The article above is saying that a 'scratchy throat' is something that Omicron patients frequently complain of. It is likely that Omicron has been spreading in the community in England since at least as early as the 16th of November.
The government is now going on a booster drive to get as many people boosted as possible. They are going to add the booster as a requirement for eligibility for the Covid Pass, needed for foreign travel, and to get into large venues and events. This has led to a rush for booster doses, and the government is going to have to jab a million people a day to reach its target of getting a booster to every eligible adult by the end of December (the best rate of vaccination it ever managed before was shy of 900,000 for a single day last March). This seems rather silly, as, from reports, it would appear that this virus is the most communicable known to science, and it is projected to expose almost everyone in the country in the next couple of weeks, and the booster immunity takes several days to have an effect, and may blunt the immune system's effectiveness for a few days post-vaccination. Plus, vaccine centres are going to become hotbeds of transmission if what they are saying about the transmissibility is true. The government are taking precious few other measures to flatten the curve of infection, beyond telling everyone to go out and get jabs (Pfizer and Moderna only, now). They advised everyone to work at home if they can, but have done little to limit mass gatherings, and have even encouraged people to go to office Christmas parties in concert with telling them to work from home. My own workplace's Christmas party was cancelled on announcement of the working from home advice, however.