Covid symptoms to spot according to patients as XEC strain spreads
Members of the public have opened up about their most recent brush with COVID-19 as a new variant is spreading quickly across the globe. Scientists have warned that the XEC strain could become dominant in the UK after it showed signs of transmitting quicker than previous strains.
Years on since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of people regularly testing for the illness has declined. But as the winter flu and cold season begins and with the start of the new school year, many people are coming down with suspicious symptoms - testing to discover it’s Covid.
This uptick comes as the new XEC variant has now been detected in 27 countries across Europe, Asia and North America. This includes the UK where 82 cases of XEC have been reported.
According to experts, XEC is a recombinant variant, which occurs when two existing strains combine. More specifically, XEC is formed from the KP.3.3 and KS. 1.1 strains, with genetic links to Omicron.
Richard Orton, a bioinformatics research associate at the University of Glasgow, told The Conversation: "XEC appears to have a growth advantage and is spreading faster than other circulating variants, suggesting it will become the dominant variant globally in the next few months."
He added: "This new variant will probably be similar to other Covid variants in terms of the disease caused, given its similar genetic information. So symptoms such as a high temperature, sore throat with a cough, headaches and body aches along with tiredness are to be expected."
But what is it like to have Covid at the moment? The Manchester Evening News (MEN) spoke to a number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks. Hannah, from Levenshulme, revealed it was her fourth or fifth time with Covid.
“I was surprised because I last had it in mid-December and then tested positive again at the beginning of July. I didn’t expect to get it again so soon,” the 39-year-old told MEN.
“Now when you get a cold, you think ‘is this Covid?’ But I think you could tell from the distinctive cough and feeling in your chest. I just knew it was Covid and put off testing for a few days, but then I did and it was positive, and I wasn’t entirely surprised.”
She shared her initial symptoms: “I started feeling quite tired and like I was getting ill, but I couldn’t tell if it was just the result of a few late nights. I just felt really, really tired and didn’t have an appetite. Two days later I started with a cough."
However, the symptoms were milder this time. She added: “When I had Covid in December I was in bed for a couple of days. This time, I was up and about. I felt a bit rough but it didn’t completely knock me out like it has in the past.
“I didn’t test every day because you have to pay for the tests and I didn’t have that many. It didn’t last as long and it wasn’t as severe, but you could definitely tell it was Covid not just a cold.
“When I had it in December though, it took 10 or 11 days to test negative. Whereas this was maybe around five or six.
“It was the mildest strain that I’ve had, I still felt quite rough but when I had it the last time I had to take a couple of days off work because I felt I couldn’t concentrate, I felt awful, it hurt to look at a screen. This time, I didn’t take any time off.”
Another 28-year-old woman from Manchester who spoke to the MEN said that she suspected having Covid at the end of August. “A few days in, a wave of tiredness took over for around a day, and all I could do was nap on my sofa. That felt very similar to when I’d been ill during the Omicron wave in summer of 2022,” she said.
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“I didn’t have any Covid tests in the house and felt too ill to go outside. I knew that I wanted to stay at home and not pass whatever illness I had to anyone else, so thought it didn’t make much difference if I confirmed whether it was Covid or not, seeing as I’d be isolating anyway.”
Ste, from Prestwich, said he tested after learning a friend he’d spent time with had just had a positive Covid result. He explained: "I had noticed a bit of a sore throat which didn't last long, but the main issue was a runny nose and frequently sneezing. It felt very similar to hay-fever.
"The symptoms were the least severe of any time I had Covid. I thought I may have caught a bit of a chill after a boozy and unseasonably cool August bank holiday at Manchester Pride, and hadn't thought much else of it. It was nothing at all like the first time I had it in November 2020, before the jab, when I lost my sense of taste and felt shattered for a time even after I'd shifted the virus."
Symptoms of Covid as listed by the NHS include:
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 3 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
Although there are no isolation rules in place any more the NHS recommends staying home and avoiding contact with others if you experience symptoms.