CORONAVIRUS cases have fallen in the last few weeks as Brits start to get used to ‘living with the virus’.
Omicron is a milder illness with most people suffering cold-like symptoms, so it’s important you take a test if you’re feeling under the weather.
The government is still urging people to take coronavirus tests a few times a week as many people don’t have symptoms.
Testing will help keep people safe and will stop the bug spreading to the vulnerable.
Around 20 symptoms have been regularly logged by unwell Brits as they catch Covid.
These include a runny nose, headache, altered smell and skipped meals.
It’s especially helpful to know what symptoms they have when infected with the variant, as it helps others look for clues they too could be ill.
The NHS still lists a new persistent cough, a loss of taste and smell and a high temperature as the key signs of Covid.
It’s important that if you think you have Covid from any known symptom you get a test and isolate for five days full days and take lateral flows to be released.
But there are two symptoms that you might mistake for everyday ailments that could come along before you test positive.
FATIGUE
Fatigue has been a feature of Covid throughout all the variants, and research has shown that it actually hits women harder.
A poll by Web MD asked users how often they had fatigue from December 23 to January 4.
A third of men said they had suffered with it, but 40 per cent of women reported they struggled with feeling weary due to Covid.
When Omicron emerged in South Africa one of the main symptoms was fatigue.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of the South African Medical Association, said the main symptoms of Omicron in the early stages were fatigue, body aches and headache.
Another expert said it can be hard to distinguish whether or not fatigue is down to Covid-19 as people can sometimes put it down to other lifestyle factors.
Studies have found fatigue is present in 62 per cent of Covid cases.
Infectious disease expert Dr Sachin Nagrani said it is defined as extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness.
“As an acute symptom, while new fatigue could be an early marker of a Covid-19 infection, the fatigue could easily be due to another cause.
“It’s also important to remember that many cases of Covid-19 have no symptoms at all, which is one reason it has continued to spread so easily”, he told Good Housekeeping.
DIZZINESS/FAINTING
A new report from Germany has suggested fainting spells could be a sign of Omicron.
Doctors in Berlin have found a link after a 35-year-old came to hospital suffering recurrent fainting spells – who was then found to have Covid.
They say the infection triggered the fainting in this case, when it is usually caused by low blood flow to the brain.
Newspaper Ärztezeitung reports the doctors see a “clear connection” between the infection and the fainting spells, known as syncope.
They said it could be due to three reasons – “the reproducible circumstances under which the syncope manifests itself, the clear chronological correlation of the symptoms with a SARS-CoV-2 infection and the absence of properties that indicate a structural heart disease.”
Some types of viral infections can cause dizziness after impacting the inner ear and the nerves there.
Long Covid patients have reportedly also struggled with fainting spells.
Data from Italy, Spain and Portugal found from more than 14,000 Covid patients 4.2 per cent said they had felt faint or fainted in the early stage of the infection.
It seems to be affecting people over the age of 60 more frequently.
