The official list of Covid-19 symptoms has been expanded to include nine other signs of infection by the UK Health Safety Agency, including sore throat, muscle aches, and diarrhea.
The information update takes place more than two years after the start of the pandemic and includes other new symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, tiredness, headache, stuffy nose, lack of appetite, and indisposition.
The authorities point out that “symptoms of covid-19 and other respiratory infections” such as flu and cold are very similar.
The original symptoms of a Covid-19 infection so far recognized in the UK were fever, continuous coughing and loss of smell or taste.
For British epidemiologist Tim Spector, creator of a computer application that collects information from infected people, this is an update that should have happened a long time ago.
“It’s a shame they got the order wrong, but it’s a start and can help reduce infections,” he commented on the social network Twitter.
The novelty comes at a time when the UK has a record number of cases and also the end of rapid self-tests provided by the Government.
A study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics office estimated that 4.9 million people were infected last week, up from 4.3 million in the first week of the year, which was the previous record in the country of 67 million people. .
The current vacancy is attributed to the omicron subvariant BA.2, which has become dominant in recent weeks after the lifting of restrictions in England, including the mandatory use of masks, prophylactic isolation for infected people, and testing for international travelers.
Source: with agencies