Sore Throat Becomes the Most Common COVID-19 Symptom

The arrival of winter has led to an increase in COVID cases in the UK and other European nations. It suggests that there will be a new wave of infection in the upcoming days. COVID-19 cases have increased by 14% in the past week, according to National Statistics officials, but the precise cause of the increase is yet unknown. Professor Tim Spector, the co-founder of the COVID ZOE app, commented, “Many people are still using the government guidelines about symptoms which are wrong.”

Most Common Symptoms of COVID-19

Although initially, the most prevalent and obvious symptoms of COVID-19 were fever and loss of taste and smell, they have altered substantially in recent years. “At the moment, COVID starts in two-thirds of people with a sore throat. Fever and loss of smell are rare now – so many old people may not think they’ve got COVID. They’d say it’s a cold and not be tested.”

The remarks were made at a time when preliminary data indicate that new subvariants of Omicron are evolving into immune-evasive forms.

COVID-19 Virus is Evolving

Admitting with Spector, Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said, “What we’re finding is the virus is evolving around the immunity that’s been built up through vaccines and countless infections people have had. The biggest concern we’re seeing is that these variants are starting to cause a slight increase in infections in early data. In a way, this was to be expected but it does demonstrate that we’re not out of the woods yet at all with this virus, sadly.”

Young said, “We’ve really taken our eye off the ball with COVID tests. We can only detect variants or know what’s coming by doing sequencing from PCR testing, and that’s not going on anywhere near the extent it was a year ago,” he explains. “People are going to get various infections over the winter but won’t know what they are because free tests aren’t available – it’s going to be a problem.”

Other notable symptoms, besides sore throat, include fever, fatigue, cough, body aches and headaches, runny or blocked nose, achy joints and digestive disorders.

Source-Medindia