Health experts have warned of a new COVID-19 variant that has begun spreading across the world.
Covid XEC was first detected in Germany back in June and has now been identified in 15 countries around the world, according to The Mirror.
The new strain is a combination of the KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 variants.
Doctor Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, said the XEC strain was "just getting started" and was "definitely taking charge" as the dominant variant.
COVID-19 symptoms
Covid symptoms can feel very similar to other illness like colds and flus.
The latest Covid symptoms, according to the NHS, are:
- High temperature or shivering (chills)
- New, continuous cough (coughing a lot for more than an hour, or three or more coughing episodes in 24 hours)
- Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling tired or exhausted
- Aching body
- Headache
- Sore throat
- Blocked or runny nose
- Loss of appetite
- Diarrhoea
- Feeling sick or being sick
How to tell if you have a cold, the flu or COVID-19
The NHS added: "Most people feel better within a few weeks, but it can take longer to recover.
"For some people, it can be a more serious illness and their symptoms can last longer."
Latest Covid figures in the UK
The latest COVID-19 data released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed a 4.3% spike in cases, but a decline in the number of deaths from the virus.
RECOMMENDED READING:
- The common disease medical experts believe will cause the next global pandemic
- UKHSA issues update on new variant after small spike in Covid cases recorded
-
Is my child too ill to go to school? Government and NHS advice to follow
Weekly stats (up to September 4) showed the number of covid cases had risen - 1,587 recorded.
While 102 deaths were recorded (in the week up to August 30), which was down 20.9% (27) from the previous week.
The number of patients admitted to hospital with the virus was also down by 6.6% to 1,465 (in the week up to August 29).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article