ONE sign you’ve been infected with Omicron could crop up before you even start to feel rough.
This key symptom is actually something you and others might be able to hear.
You might not even realise you’re ill until someone points out that you have a croaky or hoarse voice.
At this point you should think “time for a test”, as a sore throat is one of the most commonly reported Covid symptoms at the moment.
The symptoms associated with Omicron are the sort that could go undetected as they may present as a cold or a little niggle.
Omicron is milder than other strains, especially in the vaccinated, so isn’t hitting people as hard when infected.
While most people won’t think anything of a snuffly nose or a sore throat, it’s important if you think you could have Omicron you get a test and isolate.
This is to to avoid spreading the illness to more vulnerable people.
Professor Tim Spector, behind the Zoe Covid Symptom Study App, said Brits are logging sore throats as they come down with Omicron.
He said: “Sore throats are a really key sign of Omicron.
“People describe it as scratchy type of sore throat and very painful, something they’ve not really found before with other colds.”
The NHS still lists a new persistent cough, a loss of taste and smell and a high temperature as the key signs of Covid.
But it’s important that if you think you have Covid from any known symptom you get a test and isolate for five full days and take lateral flows to be released.
It comes as official new data revealed booster jabs slash the risk of dying with Omicron by 95 per cent.
And people who have had all of their vaccines are less likely to have long Covid, a major new study has found.
Compared to the unvaccinated, those who had at least two jabs slash their risk of the crippling condition by 50 per cent.
