The top three "classic" symptoms of Covid-19 are no longer the most common, one UK expert has revealed.
When the pandemic first began over two years ago, the three common signs of the virus that the public were told to watch out for were a fever, a persistent cough, and the loss of smell or taste.
However, with the rise of different variants such as Omicron, the most common symptoms that people sick with the virus experience has not remained consistent.
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Tim Spector, UK epidemiologist and leader of the ZOE Covid Symptom app, has stated that this is because Covid-19 has "evolved" since November 2019.
The ZOE study is a Covid surveillance app that has been documenting information about the virus, such as how it presents in patients and where the hotspots are at any given time, since March 2020.
Spector has revealed that "only half" of people reporting their symptoms on the app possess the three original common indicators.
Around 480 million submissions have been made on the app, which demonstrate a clear trend away from symptoms observed at the beginning of the pandemic.
In a blog post on Australian news site newsGP, Spector wrote: "Importantly, we found that only half of people with Covid had any of the classic three symptoms of fever, cough or loss of sense of smell."
The ZOE study recorded 'clear differences' in the prevalence of certain symptoms in Omicron infections compared with previous variants.
The five most common were found to be: a runny nose, a sore head, fatigue, sneezing, and a scratchy throat.
The "classic" symptoms trailed behind, with a persistent cough at number six, a fever at number 10, and the loss of taste or smell at number 17 — with the former dropping seven places from number 10 since October.
Spector continued: "Omicron appears to be continuing the trend set by Delta. It’s causing symptoms that are much more like a regular cold, particularly in people who’ve been vaccinated, and fewer general systemic symptoms, such as nausea, muscle pains, diarrhoea and skin rashes.
"For example, anosmia (loss of smell) was in the top 10 in October but has fallen to 17th place.
"What was once a key indicator of COVID is now only seen in around one in five people testing positive.
He added: "And according to our data, less than a third of people (29%) will ever experience a fever, which is also far less common than we’ve seen in the past."
Researchers compared reports from October when Delta was the dominant variant to data from December when Omicron spread in the UK.
They also analysed data from contributors who'd been told by the government that their PCR was suspected or confirmed Omicron.
