United States: As trends of COVID-19 and influenza have accelerated in several parts of the country, health departments in at least 16 states reported cases of respiratory illness reaching “high” or “very high” levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerted.
The new COVID variant, JN.1, is becoming the largest share of the current winter wave of infections, which is growing at a fast pace, according to a report by CBS News.
Symptoms of the new COVID variant in recent surveys!
Experts warned that it’s tricky to obtain the subtle changes to symptoms being caused by different COVID-19 variants. While explaining the same, they underscored that it is because of a wide range of variety of antibodies that people now possess from either vaccination, previous infection from various variants, or both.
CDC, on discussing the JN.1 strain, said, “The types of symptoms and how severe they are usually depend more on a person’s immunity and overall health rather than which variant causes the infection,” CBS News reported.
The United Kingdom’s health authorities conducted a new survey, where COVID-19 and Influenza are on the rise too, suggesting the common symptoms of those respiratory infections in all surveyed residents.
It included a runny nose, cough, headache, weakness or tiredness, muscle ache, sore throat, trouble sleeping, and worry or anxiety.
The increase in the samples of given infection cases could bring a detailed analysis report. Overall, it’s difficult to distinguish the symptoms of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 vs. other infections, said Jonathon Mellor, UK Health Security Agency, on Thursday, as per the report by CBS News.
The research co-authored by health authorities in the UK also said, “Cough, sore throat, sneezing, fatigue, and headache were all among the most commonly reported symptoms for each of the three infections, suggesting that discriminating between SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and RSV based on symptoms alone may prove challenging.”
A report by the CDC of the research on nationwide household transmission in 2022, released as a preprint in May, found commonly reported symptoms among surveyed households contracted by BA.5 variant were – any symptom, cough, fever, shortness of breath, and change of taste or smell.
Most of the COVID symptoms are not different from those reported before, even the Delta variant emergence in late 2020s. However, researchers across the world reported a steady decline in reports related to loss of smell and taste, a symptom that was much more common when COVID entered with its initial wave, CBS News reported.
Other major differences related to the new variant
Incubation Period: Gradual decline in the incubation period or the amount of time that it takes for people to get sick after being exposed to COVID-19 is another difference in the most recent variant.
CDC published its report earlier this year from authors in Japan and Singapore, revealing that this time, the incubation period is shortened to as low as two to three days on average, CBS News reported.
Long COVID: Data suggested that long COVID rates might have declined since the pandemic began. As per the CDC’s definition, the long or post-COVID condition is to be symptoms that continue to go on or emerge at least four (4) weeks after recovering from the virus.
A CDC study of Census Bureau survey data said, “Approximately one in ten adults with previous COVID-19 were experiencing long COVID at the end of the study period, highlighting the ongoing importance of COVID-19 prevention actions, including vaccination.”
Another study published in the medical journal JAMA in May mentioned 12 symptoms associated with long COVID, which can be listed as debilitating fatigue that gets worse after physical or mental activity (or post-exertional malaise), fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, gastrointestinal symptoms, heart palpitations, issues with sexual desire or capacity, loss of smell or taste, thirst, chronic cough, chest pain, and abnormal movements, CBS News reported.
Are there changes in testing recommendations for COVID-19?
Largely, testing and treatment remain unchanged for this winter, according to the guidance issued from the US health authorities.
As the FDA’s guidance remained the same for this winter, most COVID-19 home tests, like the free rapid antigen kits, can be requested by all American households from the Biden administration this winter.
As per the FDA, one should swab their nose “again 48 hours after” in case one at first gets a negative result from the antigen test but has symptoms or thinks that one was exposed to the virus, CBS News reported.
CDC said that these recommendations only apply to antigen tests, which “are generally less sensitive” to picking up infections.
The Lucira kit from Pfizer, like home molecular tests for COVID-19 in February, was given a green signal by the FDA to test for influenza as well, which yielded more accurate results as well. 88.3 percent of the COVID-19 cases were tested correctly among the positive cases.
Another method for COVID testing was a swab inside the throat or mouth, which has so far not been approved by the FDA for use in home tests due to safety concerns.
A recent study published this month from Denmark found that combining self-collected nose and throat swabs upped the sensitivity of testing by 15.5 percentage points.