While vaccines are the best weapons you can add to your arsenal of protection against Covid, they are not a silver bullet. Even patients with punctures can still contract the disease and experience symptoms. The latest reports share that cases are on the rise again, with new “superior” symptoms, including hyposmia. Here’s how to spot it.
Speaking on the Zoe YouTube channel, Professor Tim Spector said: “Covid is back in the news because rates are going up and we’re now over 200,000. [cases]. That’s up about 36 percent from two weeks ago, which is quite a lot.
“Around one in 27 people still have Covid and we have a way to go before we get back there [numbers] we saw in the summer
“The Omicron BA.5 variant remains the most common. There are others around but they haven’t taken over.”
With this dominant strain increasing cases in the UK, symptoms still include the usual suspects such as sore throat, runny nose and headache.
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However, recent reports from the Zoe Covid Study app, which tracks dominant Covid symptoms through patient reports, have added an altered sense of smell to their list of “top” signs to watch for.
Hyposmia, or decreased ability to smell, is one of the symptoms you may experience.
According to the research, published in the journal HNO, about 31 percent of patients experiencing distorted smell also suffered from rhinitis, which describes chronic sneezing or a stuffy, runny nose.
The study even reports that hyposmia was the main or only symptom in two of its subjects.
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Apart from your diminished ability to smell, Covid patients often report parosmia, where the smell of a familiar object changes to something unpleasant, or fantassmia, where you can smell something that isn’t there.
While Covid still triggers symptoms that target your nose, “traditional” loss of smell is much “less common,” according to Zoe.
While this annoying sign used to be a leading indicator of Covid, loss of smell now ranks 14th on the list of prevalent signs.
Patients suffering from the virus usually report changes in their smell rather than total loss of smell.
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This list of symptoms was made from the latest data for the 30 days prior to December 5, using reports from Zoe’s co-workers who tested positive for Covid.
The health study explains: “We used to report the top five symptoms. But over time, we’ve seen these change frequently.
“So now we’re reporting the top 10 symptoms, which are more stable.
“The order of these symptoms is based on reports from contributors to the app and does not take into account which variant caused the infection or any demographic information.”
Although you are not required by law to self-isolate when you have the virus, the NHS still tells people to stay at home and avoid contact with others when they are infected.