The UK is heading into a new wave of Covid-19 infections this autumn, exacerbated by new ‘immune-evasive’ variants of the virus. Cases are already on the rise, with infections increasing by 14 percent over the past seven days, according to the latest figures. And this time around, apparently there’s a new dominant symptom: a sore throat.
Up to two thirds of people testing positive for the virus are reporting a sore throat when they first become infected, instead of a fever or loss of taste or smell. And with less regular testing available in the UK since lateral flows and PCR tests were made no longer free of charge, experts fear that there will be high transmission levels.
Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the Covid ZOE app, told The Independent: ‘It looks like we’re in the start of the next wave and this time it’s affected older people slightly earlier than the last wave. Many people are still using the government guidelines about symptoms which are wrong.
’At the moment, Covid starts in two thirds of people with a sore throat. Fever and loss of smell are really rare now – so many old people may not think they’ve got Covid. They’d say it’s a cold and not be tested.’
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