An Irish professor has said that the latest strain of Covid-19 is beginning to throw up new symptoms that the public should be aware of.
Luke O’Neill said the newly identified sign of the BA.5 variant was published this morning and comes as many health officials plead with the public to isolate even at the first sign of infection.
The Trinity College Professor told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny today that the strain - which has been linked to Omicron - has been causing havoc across the globe in recent weeks.
READ MORE: Sore throat, cough and sniffles among symptoms that mean you should stay at home
Although the summer wave is rampant, Irish officials have yet to reintroduce any new restrictions as the rate of vaccination remains high and side effects seem less severe.
O’Neill said: "Most cases in Ireland at the moment would be BA.5, for instance, same in the US. It's another curveball that has been thrown at us by this virus, and BA.5 is the dominant variant that's out there at the moment.”
When speaking about the summer wave, he said it is now believed that there are some key differences in the symptoms being reported - and people need to be aware of them.
"One extra symptom for BA.5 I saw this morning is night sweats," he said.
"The disease is slightly different because the virus has changed. There is some immunity to it, with the T cells and so on, and that mix of your immune system and the virus being slightly different might give rise to a slightly different disease - with strangely enough - night sweats being a feature.”
As the virus mutates and changes, O’Neill said there is one key thing that is continuing to protect people from the most severe Covid effects.
"Very importantly, if you're vaccinated and you're boosted, it doesn't progress into severe disease. Remember the ones who are getting sickest are unvaccinated or haven't had the booster. Hence the message: get the booster because it will give you this added protection.”
While the available vaccines are still considered our best protection against the virus right now, O’Neill says he believes new ones will be developed ahead of the expected winter surge.
"Both Pfizer and Moderna have said they'll have an Omicron vaccine by September, and they'll have a BA.4/5 by October,” he explained.
"So when we get to that point, it would make sense to start using those newer ones. But... the current one is still giving good protection anyway.
"Like the flu, you'll change the vaccine based on the variant that's around at the time.”
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