Hundreds of cases of a new Omicron sub-variant have now been identified in England.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has described Omicron BA.2 as a “variant under investigation”, with 426 cases reported in England so far.
Early analysis suggests it may spread faster than its parent strain, though scientists cannot yet confirm this.
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Some scientists have given it the nickname "stealth variant" because it is more difficult to detect than BA.1 (Omicron).
Dr Meera Chand, Covid-19 Incident Director at UKHSA, said: "It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it's to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge as the pandemic goes on.
"Our continued genomic surveillance allows us to detect them and assess whether they are significant.
"So far there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe illness than Omicron BA.1, but data is limited and UKHSA continues to investigate."
It’s important to be aware of the symptoms of Omicron to avoid further spread of infection, and as more data is made available to experts, new signs of the variant come to light.
What are the symptoms of Covid-19?
Most people will be aware of the three classic covid symptoms recognised by the NHS – a new, continuous cough, a fever and loss of taste or smell.
However, the scientists behind the ZOE covid symptom app claim many people testing positive for Omicron are logging symptoms more closely associated with the common cold.
For analysis, scientists took the health reports from contributors reporting positive cases in the ZOE COVID Study app in December 2021 as Omicron became dominant and compared them with data from early October when Delta was the dominant variant.
Dr Claire Steves said the top five symptoms in both periods were:
- Runny nose
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Sneezing
- Sore throat
Another lesser-known symptom being reported is back pain.
Alongside lower back pain, muscle aches throughout the body have also been reported.
Dr Ryan Noach, the CEO of South Africa-based Discovery Health, also said that the most common early sign was a scratchy throat and most of these symptoms are mild.
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