Up to three-quarters of those suffering from common cold-like symptoms are likely to be infected with Covid, scientists suggest.
According to a research carried out by the ZOE Covid study, 75 per cent of us who have things like a runny nose and sore throat are likely to have symptomatic coronavirus.
It comes as there may now be as many as 20 signs of the virus ranging from the 'big three' of a cough, loss of smell and fever to things like fatigue and headaches.
Up from 50 per cent last week, the figures show a fall in the number of non-Covid "colds" as well as a rise in symptomatic virus infection rates.
It also said that the incidence figures show there are currently 192,290 new daily symptomatic cases of Covid-19 in the UK on average, based on test data from up to three days ago.
This is up 33% from the 144,284 reported last week.
Scotland's case numbers hit a record high again yesterday as a huge 16,857 positive tests were returned.
The study also found that while the rise in cases appeared to be slowing in the 0 to 55 age groups it was “rising sharply” in the 55 to 75-year-old groups.
It said that this was “worrying” because this older age group was more at risk of needing hospital treatment.
Dr Claire Steves, scientist on the ZOE Covid Study app, said that while the number of daily new symptomatic Covid cases was more than double what it was this time last year, exponential growth appeared to have stopped.
But the reader at King’s College London said that symptoms such as a sore throat, headache, and runny nose needed to be added to the Government list of Covid symptoms as soon as possible.
She added: “The number of daily new symptomatic Covid cases are more than double what they were this time last year and we are just a day or two away from hitting over 200,000.
“However, the exponential growth in cases appears to have stopped, and the rise is more steady.
“Hospitalisation rates are thankfully much lower than this time last year, but they are still high, especially in London.
“It’s good news to see that fewer people are newly sick than a few weeks ago.
“However, the fact that 75% of new cold-like symptoms are Covid, and the classic symptoms are much less common, means the Government advice needs to be urgently updated.
“We want to see symptoms like sore throat, headache and runny nose added to the list as soon as possible.”
The new figures, published on Thursday, come after a new record was set for the daily number of coronavirus cases on Wednesday, as all four UK nations reported their figures for the first time since Christmas Eve.
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