Hay fever confused with Covid as new wave builds

With milder omicron the symptoms are similar and many may not be taking precautions, experts warn

COVID mistaken for hay fever may be contributing to a wave of coronavirus cases, scientists believe.

There is some overlap between the symptoms of the two and the Met Office yesterday said pollen levels are “very high” across the UK.

There may be a new Covid wave brewing with around 1.4 million people in the UK testing positive last week, according to the ONS, up 43 per cent from the week before.

Hay fever symptoms are sneezing, a sore throat and a runny nose. These are also commonly caused by omicron, the current dominant variant of Covid, which is milder than its predecessors.

Coronavirus’s three traditional symptoms (sore throat, fever and loss of taste/ smell), first posited in Spring 2020, are forming a minority of cases with new variants and vaccination making Covid more “cold-like”.

Prof Azeem Majeed, chairman of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, said: “I’ve had patients, and colleagues as well, who thought they just had hay fever, but when they tested they actually had Covid.

“One issue is that, unlike two years ago, we’ve now got population immunity through vaccination or prior infection which suppresses the symptoms somewhat into things like a runny nose, a mild cough, sneezing, for example, which would overlap with hay fever.

“People may therefore confuse it with hay fever, and not take precautions to help stop the spread of the disease.”

He said that waning immunity from the last round of boosters, increased mixing and the end of free testing are all contributing to the uptick in Covid cases, but confusion caused by hay fever is adding to this as well.

Marc Donovan, Boots chief pharmacist, put out a guide to help people tell if they have Covid or hay fever.

“Typical hay fever symptoms include sneezing, a runny or blocked nose, itchy red watery eyes or an itchy throat, mouth, nose and ears,” he said.

“The most common symptoms of Covid-19 include a high temperature and/or a new continuous cough.”

While Mr Donovan said sneezing is not a recognised Covid symptom, other experts disagree. Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, who founded the Zoe app, has long called for the Government to expand its list of symptoms to reflect that omicron’s are more like a cold than delta, alpha and other variants.

“It is possible high pollen levels are fooling people into thinking they have a bout of hay fever when in fact they have Covid, but people are good at knowing when they are sick,” said Prof Spector.

“It’s always good to check any new cold-like symptoms with a quick LFT test but if your only symptoms are a runny nose or sneezing it might just be hay fever.

“If hay fever symptoms seem worse than normal, I’d advise people to take a test to be safe. Covid cases are definitely rising fast again, so the more cases we can catch early the more we can suppress the spike in case numbers.”

A study published earlier this year by the Zoe team in The Lancet found three quarters of omicron patients have a runny nose, 70 per cent have a sore throat and two-thirds sneeze.

Zoe also found loss of sense of smell or taste is 80 per cent less common with omicron than delta, while a sore throat is 55 per cent more common.

Margaret Kelman, head of clinical at Allergy UK, said: “Omicron’s cold-like symptoms (runny nose and sore throat) make it possible that some may mistake their symptoms for hay fever or a cold rather than Covid in the early stages.

“Hay fever symptoms tend to be an itchy nose, eyes or throat, runny nose, sneezing, and watery eyes.

“Although hay fever symptoms may increase in intensity and make you feel miserable, they do not cause extreme lethargy, headaches or stomach upset that can be seen with Covid, and you won’t get a high temperature or fever with hay fever; despite fever being in its name.”