Experts have urged people to aware of the 'non-traditional signs' of new coronavirus variant omicron as cases of the strain soar across the UK.
The ZOE Covid Symptom study, which has been monitoring the impact of the ascendant variant, has said that recognising the symptoms and self-isolating if you spot them can help to stem the spread of the highly transmissible variant.
Using the most recent data from London, where the prevalence of the omicron variant is higher than other regions of the UK, ZOE data scientists analysed symptom data from positive cases and compared it with data from early October when Delta was dominant.
According to the new analysis, just 50 per cent of people experienced the 'classic' three coronavirus symptoms of fever, cough, or loss of sense of smell or taste.
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Among the non-classic symptoms reported by those who tested positive for omicron was a loss of appetite.
Brain fog was also commonly reported in the data - a vague term to describe a sense of confusion, forgetfulness, and a lack of focus and mental clarity.
The top five symptoms reported in the app were:
- Runny Nose
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Sneezing
- Sore Throats
Every report in the ZOE Covid app builds on this data and the scientists will be conducting more research into the symptom profile of Omicron in the coming weeks.
