Omicron: Two new symptoms to look out for

The UK recorded 183,000 new cases of the coronavirus, largely due to the influx of Omicron transmission.

What are the two new symptoms?

With the newest variant now being responsible for 90% of all infections currently in circulation, more and more information is coming out about the variant each day. Most recently, two new symptoms have been associated with the super-infections mutation, which has also been observed in those that are fully vaccinated.

According to scientists from the ZOE COVID Study app, on top of the regular symptoms previously associated with the virus (cough, fever, sneezing, etc), the two emerging symptoms include: loss of appetite and nausea.

As it turns out, loss of appetite has been reported as being a rather common effect of the Omicron variant. Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, Tim Spector, further elaborated that:

Things like fever, cough and loss of smell are now in the minority of symptoms we are seeing. Most people don’t have classic symptoms. Quite a few of them had nausea, slight temperature, sore throats and headaches.

'COVID is unpredictable'

With winter amongst us, Dr. Spector believes it is important to distinguish symptoms that might overlap between those experienced by a cold, a flu and the coronavirus. The best way to go about this is by getting tested as soon as you start having symptoms, either by flow lateral tests or a PCR. Dr. Spector said:

Omicron is breaking through in vaccinated people, but it’s causing milder cold-like symptoms. However, this is not a reason to be relaxed about Omicron.

And added:

Covid is unpredictable and, even if most only feel like they’ve got a cold, there are far more long-term risks than a cold carries.