Deadly New Covid Strain Sweeps UK With Sneaky Symptom Everyone Misses

For many people, Covid feels like yesterday’s news. But a new variant has quietly slipped into the UK and is spreading quickly, with symptoms that are easy to brush off.

The strain, named Stratus, includes two variants, XFG and XFG.3. The latter has grown rapidly and made up 40 per cent of cases in England by June. Health experts say it is accelerating fast and bringing early warning signs you might not immediately link to Covid.

In Ireland, the situation looks similar. Health officials recorded 425 new infections in just the first week of September. Stratus is believed to be behind most of them. In fact, the variant now accounts for more than 76 per cent of cases, a sharp jump from 49 per cent only six weeks earlier, according to Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre, reports Yorkshire Live.

The World Health Organisation has classed Stratus as a “variant under monitoring”. It is not thought to cause more severe illness than previous strains, but it spreads faster.

What makes Stratus especially tricky is its early symptom. Rather than the usual cough or fever, the most common first sign is a gravelly or hoarse voice, reports the Mirror. This scratchy voice can later progress to the classic Covid indicators like fever and cough.

Harley Street GP Dr Kaywaan Khan told Cosmopolitan UK: “One of the most noticeable symptoms of the Stratus variant is hoarseness, which includes a scratchy or raspy voice.”

Doctors have also flagged a wider set of symptoms with this strain, ranging from blocked noses and sore throats to gut problems and extreme fatigue. Infectious disease expert Dr Peter Chin-Hong from the University of California San Francisco told SFGATE that Stratus shows “a wider range of symptoms” than earlier versions.

He explained: “There’s a little bit more sore throats with some people. Particularly in those who are older, who didn’t get vaccinated last year. It’s more transmissible, so we expect that a lot of people will get it. Particularly with kids going back to school, a sniffle is likely going to be Covid.”

Despite all this, the UK’s official Covid advice hasn’t changed. The Government website states: “If you have COVID-19 you should try to stay at home. Most people cannot get free COVID-19 tests. You can buy tests in shops but you cannot report the result to the NHS. You can get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the NHS.”

The NHS has also kept its list of recognised symptoms unchanged. It still covers the familiar signs like fever, cough and loss of taste or smell, even though doctors abroad are warning that Stratus looks different in its early stages.

For now, health experts are urging people not to ignore that husky voice, sore throat or sudden tiredness. With Stratus on the rise, the everyday sniffle could easily be more than just a cold.