Total Covid-19 infections in the UK have climbed above two million for the first time since July, though there are signs the rate of increase may be slowing, figures show.
Health experts said the trend was “encouraging” and the current wave of the virus “may have already peaked”, with Covid-19 hospital numbers appearing to have levelled off in recent days. But there have been renewed calls for people to take up the offer of an autumn booster of Covid vaccine, with around four in 10 over-75s yet to.
Just over two million people in private households in the UK are likely to have tested positive for coronavirus in the week to October 10, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is up 15% from 1.7 million in the previous week and is the highest total since the week to July 26 – though still some way below the peak of 3.8 million reached in early July, during the wave caused by the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants of the virus.
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The jump of 15% is smaller than those seen in the past few weeks and while infections have risen in England and Wales, the trend in Scotland and Northern Ireland is described by the ONS as “uncertain”.
And now, according to the Zoe Health Study, the key symptoms to look for now may have changed. While previous data suggested that a fever was a common sign of Covid, it has now dropped out of the top 20 symptoms to look out for, says Professor Tim Spector.
"It really is a complete waste of everyone's time to be screening workplaces and care homes... for fever at the moment," he added. However, he did stress that if you have any of the following symptoms, you should get tested and record your result in the ZOE app.
What are the top symptoms to look out for?
The most recent data from the ZOE study states that the top Coronavirus symptoms to be aware of are:
- Sore throat
- Runny nose
- Blocked nose
- Headache
- Dry cough
- Sneezing
- Cough with phlegm
- Hoarse voice
- Muscle pains aches
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Altered smell
- Swollen neck glands
- Eye soreness
- Chest pain and tightness
- Loss of smell
- Shortness of breath
- Earache
- Chills or shivers
- Joint pain, especially shoulders
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