Sore throat alert as ‘new Covid wave beginning’
EXPERTS are warning that a new wave of Covid has begun in the UK and many people may not realise they have the virus at first because a new symptom is increasingly common.
People across the UK have got used to looking out for a new persistent cough, fever and loss of sense of taste or smell as signs of the virus.
But Professor Tim Spector, cofounder of the Covid ZOE app, said there is a new sign to watch for.
“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,” he told the Independent.
“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.”
Professor Spector’s concerns are that early data shows new subvariants of Omicron are becoming immune-evasive and could cause the UK “real problems” as winter approaches.
Covid-19 infections in England and Wales are continuing to increase, new figures show. The rise means the total number of infections in the UK has also gone up, though the trend in Scotland and Northern Ireland is unclear.
Some 1.1 million people in private households across the UK are likely to have tested positive for coronavirus in the latest survey, which covers the seven days to September 17 in England and the week to September 20 in the other three nations, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is a rise of 14% from 927,900 in the previous survey, which covered the week to September 13/14.
It is the first time the UK-wide total has been above one million since late August, though it is still some way below the 3.8 million weekly infections in early July at the peak of the wave caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus.
The figures come as the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 is also continuing to rise. Sarah Crofts, ONS deputy director for the Covid-19 infection survey, said it is “too early to identify whether this is the start of a new wave”.
But Professor Spector said it was “clear we’re now seeing an autumn wave of Covid-19, combined with increases in hospital admissions”.
In England, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in the week to September 17 was 857,400, or around one in 65 – up from 766,500, or one in 70, in the seven days to September 14.
Wales has also seen a rise, where the latest estimate for infections is 62,900, or one in 50 people, up from 39,700, or one in 75.
All age groups in England are estimated to have seen an increase. Infection rates are highest among over-70s, where 1.7% of people were likely to test positive in the most recent week, or around one in 60.
Rates are lowest among young children between the age of two and school Year 6, at 1.2% – the equivalent of one in 85.
The ONS infection survey is the most reliable measure of the prevalence of coronavirus.
Separate figures from the NHS show the number of people in hospital in England with Covid-19 stood at 7,024 on September 28, up 37% week on week. Patient numbers topped 14,000 in mid-July at the peak of the BA.4/5 wave, after which they started to fall steadily.
This decline came to a halt in midSeptember, however.