Dr Hilary has outlined the problem with the nine new official Covid-19 symptoms added to the NHS website. The GP joined Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley on Good Morning Britain on Monday, April 4 to discuss the new list of signs that could indicate you have the virus.
Prior to the list update, which has occurred two years into the pandemic, only three official Covid symptoms were listed - a high temperature, a new, continuous cough and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste. It comes as free lateral flow testing is set to be axed.
Discussing the new list of symptoms on GMB, Kate asked Dr Hilary: "On the government website there is finally a change in the list of symptoms, there are now nine symptoms rather than the three we all became used to. Why now make that change when it's been stuck on just the three for so long?"
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Dr Hilary responded: "It is very belated, we've known for sometime, since the origianl delta variant that symptoms have changed, and now the omicron variant and others have produced a variety of symptoms which include shortness of breath, severe fatigue, headaches, runny nose, sore throat, cold like symptoms, and diarrhoea and vomiting.
"So many other symptoms which we've known about for a long time and part of the surveyance that we've been doing on cases has shown that these symptoms are really quite common. It's not everyone who loses their sense of taste and smell, it's not everybody who gets a high fever, in fact it's quite unusual these days with the cases that we are seeing with omicron to get a fever."
Dr Hilary then pointed out, however, that due to free lateral flow testing being axed the list is not actually helpful. He continued: "So it's just pointing out that these symptoms could be Covid, unfortunately since they've abandoned free testing it's not very helpful. People don't know whether they've got a cold, Covid or hayfever."
The new list of symptoms includes the three previously listed, and adds:
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling tired or exhausted
- An aching body
- A headache
- A sore throat
- A blocked or runny nose
- Loss of appetite
- Diarrhoea
- Feeling sick or being sick
After listing the symptoms, the NHS website highlights: "The symptoms are very similar to symptoms of other illnesses, such as colds and flu." You can read more about the new symptoms here.
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