A new Covid symptom has emerged as the most common as winter chaos looms for Ireland's health services.
Many are ruling out being infected with Covid-19 due to having a sore throat, but now experts are saying it's the most common symptom. Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the Covid ZOE app, says that previous signs such as a loss of taste and smell and fever are quite rare now.
The HSE's guidelines currently say that the most common symptoms are fever, having chills, dry cough and fatigue (tiredness). It comes as the health body warns of a "twindemic" coming down the line during the colder months, the Irish Mirror reports.
Read more: Flu vaccine now available ahead of 'twindemic' - here is who can get the shot for free
A combination of Covid and the flu is set to overwhelm hospitals with worst case scenarios predicting 7,000 people in hospital with Covid, 4,500 flu patients and 700 in ICU. The Emergency Department Task Force came up with the figure as its worst case scenario in a meeting last month.
Covid figures remain high in Ireland with 1,663,653 people testing positive for the disease over the last two weeks. Of those who are positive, 416 people are currently in hospital while nine are in ICU.
The HSE's Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Colm Henry, says that “we’re right to be concerned". He added: "We’re not out of the woods yet and there is always a minor chance that our health system could face pressure this year, so, yes, some trepidation looking forward, but by no means are we certain we’re going to see the catastrophic predictions some are making.”
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