September 18, 2023 – The commonest symptoms of COVID-19 have turn out to be so mild that it's becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate the illness from allergies or a chilly, in accordance with personal reports from doctors.
Although COVID hospitalizations have continued to rise for months, several doctors said a sore throat and subsequent congestion at the moment are the hallmark symptoms. (In the past, COVID has included telltale signs like a dry cough or a lack of sense of taste or smell.)
“It's not the same typical symptoms that we've seen before. It's severe congestion, sometimes sneezing, usually a mild sore throat,” said Erick Eiting, MD, MPH, a doctor in New York City's emergency room NBC News.
These recent symptom reports are consistent with the findings of last winter This showed that sore throat had become the most common symptom in the Omicron subvariants of the virus.
In data updated over the weekend by the CDC In the two-week period ending September 16, the three most common virus strains remained the same and all belonged to the Omicron family: EG.5 continued to lead with nearly 25% of COVID infections, while FL. 1.5.1 moved into second place with just under 14%. In third place was XBB.1.16 with 10%. A strain called HV.1, also part of the XBB lineage, rose from nearly 5% to over 8%.
The BA.2.86 strain continues to be detected in wastewater in the US, but a new update from the CDC Posted Friday afternoon stated that it remains unclear how the highly mutated version of the virus spreads compared to other variants. BA.2.86 caused concern around the world a few weeks ago because differences in the structure of the virus could cause it to behave differently than previous strains.
The CDC announced Friday that it would stop weekly posts on BA.2.86 and instead release updates only “as significant additional information becomes available.” The strain is so unusual that it isn't even on the latest tracker's list of more than 25 variants actively causing infections in the United States
“At this time, BA.2.86 does not appear to be increasing rapidly or causing an increase in infections or hospitalizations in the United States,” the CDC update said.