Although vaccines are the best weapons you can add to your arsenal of protection against Covid, they are not a silver bullet. Even bitten patients can still catch the disease and suffer from symptoms. The latest reports indicate that cases are on the rise again, with new “top” symptoms including hyposmia. Here’s how to spot it.
Speaking on YouTube’s Zoe channel, Professor Tim Spector said: “Covid is in the news again because rates are rising and we are now above 200,000 [cases]. That’s about 36% more than two weeks ago, which is a lot.
“About one in 27 people still have Covid and we have a long way to go before we get back to those [numbers] we saw in the summer.
“The Omicron BA.5 variant is still the most common. There are others around but they haven’t taken over.
With this dominant strain increasing cases in the UK, symptoms still include the usual suspects like sore throat, runny nose and headache.
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However, the latest reports from The Zoe Covid Study App, which tracks prevailing Covid symptoms through patient reports, have added an impaired sense of smell to their list of “best” signs to look out for.
Hyposmia, or a decrease in your ability to smell, is one of the symptoms you may experience.
According to a study published in the journal HNO, about 31% of patients who have distorted smell also had rhinitis, which describes chronic sneezing or a stuffy, runny nose.
The study even reports that hyposmia was the main or only symptom in two of their subjects.
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Besides the decline in your ability to smell, Covid patients often report parosmia, where the smell of a familiar object turns into something unpleasant, or phantosmia, where you can smell something that isn’t there. .
Although Covid still triggers symptoms that target your nose, “traditional” loss of smell is much “less common”, according to Zoe.
While this pesky sign was once a major indicator of Covid, loss of smell now ranks 14th on the list of common signs.
Patients with the virus tend to report changes in their smell instead of a complete loss of smell.
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This list of symptoms was compiled based on the latest data from the 30 days to December 5, using reports from Zoe contributors with positive Covid tests.
The health study explains, “We used to report the top five symptoms. But over time, we have seen that these change frequently.
“So we are now reporting the top 10 symptoms, which remain more stable.
“The order of these symptoms is based on contributor reports in the app and does not take into account the variant causing the infection or any demographic information.”
Although self-isolation is not required by law when you have the virus, the NHS is still asking people to stay home and avoid contact with others when infected.
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