Stealth Covid and Deltacron symptoms as new variants spread in UK

Cases of Covid and hospitalisations have been increasing in recent days - with experts saying this was to be expected when the final restrictions were lifted.

But the same time, doctors have warned of two recent strains now circulating in the UK, with Stealth Covid rapidly becoming dominant. And there are fears Stealth Covid, BA.2, which is a subvariant of Omicron and cannot be differentiated with simple tests, is more transmissible than other variants.

Cases of Deltacron, a mutant hybrid of Omicron and Delta, have also been confirmed by the UK Health Security Agency and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Cases have also been found in France and Cyprus.

Read more: Latest Covid-19 rates in Greater Manchester as cases rise in all 10 boroughs for third day in a row

The WHO is preparing to give an update on the variant in the UK.

Neither variant has been found to have any symptoms different from previous types of Covid - so the symptoms to watch for remain the same.

According to Yella Hewings-Martin, PhD of the ZOE Covid Studym which is tracking symptoms across the country, the top five most commonly reported symptoms of Omicron are

runny nose

headache

fatigue (mild or severe)

sneezing

sore throat

She said: "Interestingly, we've seen loss of smell and taste become much less common. It was in the top 10 symptoms earlier in 2021, and now it's ranking at 17, with only one in five people experiencing it."

Read more about coronavirus: Covid-19 back on the rise among older people amid Omicron 'stealth variant' and Manchester health leaders 'concerned'

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