Omicron: Half of all people experiencing cold-like symptoms likely to have Covid, say UK researchers

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Half of all the people with cold-like symptoms in the UK are likely to have symptomatic Covid-19 infections and not just a “harmless cold,” suggested a new analysis.

The finding comes as Covid cases in the country have continued to skyrocket, with a record daily surge of 119,789 cases reported on Thursday, fuelled by the Omicron variant.

Scientists behind the ZOE symptom study app in the UK made the findings based on data from 64,119 recent swab tests done in the two weeks up to 20 December.

They compared the number of new cases of a cold-like illness to the number of new confirmed Covid cases.

The incidence figures in the analysis are based on reports from around 840,000 weekly contributors and the fraction of new symptomatic users who received positive swab tests.

Although preliminary data suggested infections with Omicron are milder with fewer hospitalisations compared to the other variants of the coronavirus, as the number of new infections has nearly doubled every two to three days, experts are worried about the pressure the “explosion” of cases would put on the NHS.

“The number of new symptomatic cases has exploded over the last week,” Tim Spector, an epidemiologist and lead scientist on the ZOE app study, said in a statement.

While the figures paint a worrying picture, preliminary data of around 2,500 probable cases reported on the ZOE app suggested that Omicron is milder than Delta, the scientists said.

“However, this highly transmissible variant will infect many more people before the year is out. To help us slow the spread, my advice continues to be: avoid gathering indoors, and, if you are meeting up with people, check everyone is free of cold symptoms, test yourself just before and get fully vaccinated,” Dr Spector said.

Based on the preliminary data from the study, researchers said the most important Covid symptoms are no longer a new continuous cough, a high temperature or loss of taste or smell.

For most people, an infection with the Omicron variant will feel much more like the common cold, “starting with a sore throat, runny nose and a headache,” the scientists said

“We need to change public messaging urgently to save lives as half of people with cold-like symptoms now have Covid,” Dr Spector added.