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UK's new Covid list - 9th May 2022

The UK’s official list of Covid symptoms has been expanded to include nine additional signs of coronavirus infection, including a sore throat, muscle pains and diarrhoea. This updated guidance comes more than two years into the pandemic, and just days after free testing ended in England.

The National Health Service (NHS) cautions that many of the new symptoms "are very similar" to those for colds and flu. However, the World Health Organisation and many countries, including the US, have used a longer list of symptoms for some time. There has been serious debate in the UK about precisely which symptoms should be recognised and qualify somebody for a Covid test.

The original signs of a Covid infection that were recognised in the UK were: a fever, a new continuous cough, and loss of sense of taste or smell. These were chosen because they were either present in most Covid cases or almost exclusively caused by the virus. The list has now been expanded to include a further nine symptoms: shortness of breath, feeling tired or exhausted, an aching body, a headache, sore throat, blocked or runny nose, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, and feeling or being sick.

In the UK, Covid infections are at a record level, with 4.9 million people, or about 1 in 13, testing positive in the last week of March – the same time that free testing ended for most people in the country. The NHS only recommends people stay at home and avoid others if they have Covid symptoms and a high temperature, or if symptoms are so bad that you are not well enough to work.

Professor Tim Spector, from King's College London, has been campaigning for an expanded list of symptoms because of data from people tracking their symptoms in the Zoe Covid-19 app. He posted: "Main symptoms of coronavirus have finally changed after two years of lobbying … hurrah!"