It was been two years since the novel Coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic back in January 2020. One of the countries who have seen repeated waves of Covid-19, the United Kingdom has till now only listed three symptoms of the illness on its official list of symptoms. The UK’s National health Service (NHS) has now extended its list of symptoms caused by the Covid-19 illness to 12, with the addition of 9 new ones.
While the UK has continued with a 3-symptom list, health organisations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have enlisted many more symptoms for a long time in the pandemic. Meanwhile, cases in the country are peaked, with around 5 million people expected to get sick, WION reported.
The earlier symptoms that the UK had enlisted were fever, new and persistent cough, and loss or change in taste or smell. It has now added symptoms like headache and sore throat. Following are the new symptoms added by UK:
- 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
The UK has expanded the list of Covid-19 symptoms to help people recognise the infection when they have it. The NHS website also states that the symptoms are “very similar to symptoms of other illnesses, such as colds and flu.”
While the UK now enlists 12 symptoms, the WHO enlists 13 symptoms. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control enlists 12 symptoms while Germany’s authorities have a list of 14 symptoms.
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The UK, which is logging 76,000 new infections each day on an average, also saw a new recombinant Covid-19 variant XE detected in the country. As per early reports, the WHO has warned that the new variant may be more transmissible than earlier variants.
