Most common Omicron symptoms have CHANGED as cases surge in new summer wave

THE most common Omicron symptoms experienced by Brits have changed – as cases continue to climb as we head into the peak of summer.

Most people getting this milder variant of Covid have been suffering with cold and flu-like symptoms.

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But experts have now found that the majority of Brits are experiencing a headache, sore throat and a runny nose.

The experts said that some even suffered a headache before breathing difficulties – which can be common with respiratory illnesses.

Around 64 per cent of people are experiencing a headache, with 66 per cent also having a runny nose and 65 per cent having sore throat.

Previously, the majority of people coming down with the bug had experienced some sort of cough, but now just 63 per cent have this.

The NHS had said Brits should be on the look out for a fever, but now, just 31 per cent are reporting this sign.

Altered smell was present in 21 per cent of patients and chest pain plagued just 15 per cent.

It was last week reported that cases of Covid have soared by a third in a week, with one in 30 Brits now infected.

Prof Tim Spector of King’s College London and the Zoe Symptom Tracker app warned Brits that hay fever is going around, and to be wary of the mix up with symptoms.

A total of 2.3million people across the UK tested positive last week compared with 1.7million a week earlier.

New strains of the Omicron variant are driving numbers back towards record highs and causing a rise in hospital admissions.

Prof Spector said this has been fuelled by the BA5 variant, which has taken over from BA2 and is ‘finding a way around our immunity’.

He did however state that it won’t affect people as severely if they have had their vaccinations, or if they have previously had Covid.

“What’s really important, is because of the number of cases, we are seeing more people going to hospital.

“Although this variant is milder than we have seen previously.”

His comments come after Dame Jenny Harries urged people to “go about their normal lives” but in a “precautionary way”.

The UK Health Security Agency chief executive told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “It doesn’t look as though that wave has finished yet, so we would anticipate that hospital cases will rise. 

“And it’s possible, quite likely, that they will actually peak over the previous BA.2 wave.

“But I think the overall impact, we won’t know. It’s easy to say in retrospect, it’s not so easy to model forward.”

In the first Omicron wave – caused by the BA.1 strain – starting December 2021, hospital admissions reached up to 2,000 per day.

After a dip in case load thanks to booster jabs, then came the BA.2 wave in spring, which led to highs of 2,300 a day in April.

Currently, 1,300 people are admitted each day in the UK.

The most people admitted to hospital with Covid on any one day was almost 4,000 in January 2021, when the Alpha (Kent) variant took hold.

Dame Harries said the majority of cases in the UK now are BA.4 and BA.5.

The latter is “really pushing and driving this current wave”, she added.