OMICRON continues to dominate the Covid scene, with thousands of new cases per day.
Booster vaccines, taken by more 65 per cent of Brits, are considered the only meaningful protection against the strain.
The top-up doses are effective at preventing hospitalisation in the vast majority of people who are infected.
But it’s still important to suppress transmission of the virus, and that means spotting the symptoms early.
Covid’s symptoms can vary widely from one person to the next, and the most common have changed since the virus first emerged.
Almost 204,000 people are coming down with Covid symptoms every day in the UK, according to one of the leading outbreak tracking studies.
Of these, around 78,000 cases are in people who have at least two vaccine doses, the ZOE COVID Symptom Study app estimates.
Most common symptoms
The NHS still lists a new and persistent cough, fever, and loss of smell/taste as the classic three Covid symptoms.
It hasn’t updated since the population got vaccinated, or since new variants have emerged.
One study in Norway pinpointed the main symptoms of Omicron by studying an outbreak at a Christmas party.
The super-spreading strain had been around only for a few days at a time.
Out of 110 party attendees who were interviewed by researchers, 81 caught Omicron at the festive bash.
The majority (more than 95 per cent) of those at the bash in November 2021 had been double-vaccinated, but none were boosted.
Researchers reported eight symptoms that affected more than 40 per cent of the infected.
A cough plagued the majority of those with Omicron (83 per cent), according to the paper published in the journal Eurosurveillance.
The list of common symptoms are as follows:
- Cough (83 per cent)
- Runny nose (78 per cent)
- Fatigue (74 per cent)
- Sore throat (72 per cent)
- Headache (68 per cent)
- Muscle pain (58 per cent)
- Fever (54 per cent)
- Sneezing (43 per cent)
Reduced appetite was experienced by 33 per cent, reduced taste by 23 per cent, reduced smell by 12 per cent, heavy breathing by 12 per cent, and abdominal pain by six per cent.
The study was conducted very early on during the Omicron wave.
Since then, studies have continued to show a similar set of symptoms in vaccinated people.
The ZOE study gives a clear indication of the Omicron symptoms in people with booster jabs.
It collects data from millions of phone app users who report positive test results, the majority of whom have had two vaccine doses, and some three.
ZOE researchers, led by King’s College London, say the most common Covid symptoms right now are:
- Runny nose (74 per cent)
- Headache (68 per cent)
- Sore throat (65 per cent)
- Fatigue (64 per cent)
- Sneezing (60 per cent)
- Persistent cough (42 per cent)
- Hoarse voice (38 per cent)
Back pain has at last been highlighted as a symptom affecting a significant number of patients, after widespread anecdotal reports.
The ZOE study says around one in five (20 per cent) of people are experiencing lower back pain, which could easily be dismissed.
Some unusual signs of the virus that you could easily miss include night sweats, vomiting and diarrhoea, confusion and eye irritation.
You can expect the symptoms of Covid to start anywhere between two and 14 days after exposure.
The World Health Organization has said it takes five to six days, on average, for the effects of Covid to kick in, based on research.
But scientists recently said the symptoms start just two days after exposure, based on a world-first study in which people were deliberately infected with the virus.
Thankfully Covid symptoms don’t last as long as they used to.
Most people (70 per cent) recover from Omicron symptoms in seven days.
This compares to only 44 per cent of those who had Delta.
