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The UK has begun to tighten its Covid-19 restrictions amid an increase in cases. As news of new strains of the virus spread, experts warn that there are more symptoms that you should be aware of.
Although the NHS has only three “official” Covid-19 symptoms, there are a number of other symptoms that may also indicate that you may have the virus.
What symptoms should I watch for?
The NHS states that these are the “main symptoms” that you should be aware of:
- High temperature, which means you feel hot when you touch your chest or back
- A new continuous cough, which means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more episodes of coughing in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than normal)
- A loss or change in your sense of taste or smell, which means that you may have noticed that you can’t smell or taste anything, or that things smell or taste different than normal
However, these are not the only symptoms that can arise in patients with Covid-19.
Tim Spector, chief scientist of the ZOE COVID Symptom Study app and professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said: “People need to know all the symptoms and not just focus on the three ‘official’ symptoms that exceed 20% of cases .
“Headache, fatigue, diarrhea, muscle aches, skipping meals and confusion are just some of the other symptoms associated with Covid-19.
“If someone is suffering from any of these symptoms in the coming weeks, stay home, isolate yourself and get tested.”
‘Cases in the UK increasing rapidly’
According to the ZOE COVID Symptom Study UK Infection Survey, new daily cases of Covid-19 in the UK are “emerging”.
There are currently 38,710 new daily symptomatic cases of Covid-19 in the UK, on average, in the past two weeks, through December 18, excluding nursing homes.
Spector said: “Cases in the UK are still increasing rapidly, with an R value of 1.3 doubling approximately every week.
“This new strain of virus is being blamed for the recent rise in London and the south east, but while it is definitely becoming the dominant strain in new infections, there is still no concrete evidence that it is acting differently.
“It is possible that these rapid changes could have happened anyway, just as they did in Wales, which has four times the national rate.
“Whatever strain is causing the recent increases, we are still a mess and we need to limit the number of cases, especially in the elderly to help the NHS.”
The study numbers are based on about one million weekly reporters and the proportion of new symptomatic users who present positive smear tests.