COVID patients exhale high levels of virus the first eight days
Professor Schaffner, of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, warned that the Covid strain HV.1 is “highly transmissible”.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated HV.1 is now the most dominant strain circulating in the US.
Professor Schaffner said: “My general sense is that the Omicron progeny – the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of Omicron – are, in general, pretty darn transmissible.”
The Omicron pattern is said to be “well established”, but there is caution to be had.
As immunity from vaccines wanes, vulnerable groups who do not top up with a Covid booster vaccine are at greater risk of hospitalisation this winter.
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Professor Schaffner said that in the US, they could see “once again, a surge in hospitalisations”.
There is some “reassuring” news, however, as immunologists say the updated Covid vaccine should provide substantial protection against severe disease.
Thus far, it seems that HV.1 doesn’t appear to escape immunity from the Covid vaccines.
Nor does HV.1 seem to create more severe disease compared to other Covid strains.
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Professor Schaffner told Verywell Health: “We can expect continuous mutation and a succession of variants coming up, each one succeeding others, creating a mix of sub-variants.”
Covid symptoms
There can be a whole range of Covid symptoms, with the NHS listing the following:
- A high temperature or shivering (chills) – a high temperature means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
- A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
- 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.
Most people feel better within a few days or weeks from catching Covid.
However, people can continue to suffer from the effects of Covid for more than 12 weeks.
This is known as long Covid, which can most commonly lead to:
- Extreme tiredness (fatigue)
- Feeling short of breath
- Loss of smell
- Muscle aches.
- Additional signs of long Covid can include:
- Problems with your memory and concentration (“brain fog”)
- Chest pain or tightness
- Difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
- Heart palpitations
- Dizziness
- Pins and needles
- Joint pain
- Depression and anxiety
- Tinnitus, earaches
- Feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
- A high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste
- Rashes.
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